CHICAGO (AP) - Erica Gomez dropped out of high school her freshman year so she could work to help her newly divorced mother pay the mortgage and buy groceries. A year and a half later, Gomez had a baby girl, Alize - and the need to make money became even more pressing. Trouble was, the jobs she could find with no diploma, at a corner store in her Chicago neighborhood and later at a factory, paid less than $10,000 a year.
"It was depressing. We'd do all this work and still have nothing," says the 18-year-old, who recently enrolled in a class that helps young adults get their GEDs. Late last month, after only a few months in the class, she passed a practice test and hopes to score well enough to qualify for a scholarship when she takes the actual general equivalency diploma exam in August.
It is, after all, a hard truth that has only gotten harder in this economy: The less education you have, the more difficult it is to get a job. And the competition for even lower-paying jobs - at supermarkets, retail stores and fast-food restaurants - has meant that even more teens who want to work can't find jobs, whether full-time or just for the summer. A recent study released by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston put the teen employment rate at 36.8 percent - the lowest since 1948.
"Teenagers are at the end of the hiring queue," says Andrew Sum, the center's director, who notes that jobs that traditionally have gone to young people are often being taken by older unemployed adults - from those who've been laid off to retirees who are re-entering the job market to supplement their pensions.
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