Vanessa Spotts

Seventeen-year-old Cody Barton has lost count of the retail stores, fast-food shops and discount giants where he has fruitlessly applied for a summer job.

He said his parents always nag him to get a job. But, Cody added, sitting on a bench at Dalton’s Walnut Square Mall, “I can’t make them hire me, you know?”

The struggling economy has a new casualty: summer job seekers. As students on summer break flood the labor pool, they face fierce competition at retail and hospitality employers that are suffering from reduced consumer spending.

Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies recently described a “dismal outlook” for U.S. teens looking for summer work. An April report by the Center predicted historically low employment numbers for teens this summer.

“The deterioration of labor market conditions has accelerated the collapse of the teen job market,” the report states.

local outlook

Young people in Northwest Georgia and Southeast Tennessee aren’t immune from the nationwide job shortage, just as the region is not immune from the jobless rate increase.

In Dalton, the number of first-time unemployment claims jumped 31 percent between March and April.

And, in Bradley County last month, the jobless rate was higher than the national average.

Vanessa Spotts — who gives job-hunting advice to youths in nine counties in Southeast Tennessee through Signal Centers’ Young Adult Enrichment Program — acknowledges that times are tough.

But, she added, teens can boost their odds of finding a job, even in a competitive market.

“When young people approach (employers) with a certain level of passion and professionalism,” then employers will be more likely to give them a shot, she said.

Still, summer job hunting can be daunting.

Cleveland’s Lee University offered senior student Jagat Adhikari, 23, a summer landscaping job on campus because he couldn’t afford to return to his native Nepal for the break.

“If I had to look for jobs — if I didn’t have this one — that definitely would have been a difficult task,” Mr. Adhikari said.

At the Walnut Square mall, in Dalton, Claire’s accessory store manager Amy Martin recently ran out of job applications. The phone started ringing four or five times a day with calls from teenage job hunters.

“It’s real popular,” Ms. Martin said, but she’s hiring only one sales associate this summer.

Retail and recreation typically afford the most summer jobs, said John Lawrence, deputy director of work force information and analysis for the Georgia Department of Labor.

Those industries provided about 40 percent of Georgia’s summer jobs for youths last year.

And, he added, retail and recreation have been hit the hardest by the slowed economy.

“Both of these industries will suffer this year due to the reduction in spending, less eating out and shopping,” he said, in an e-mail message.

START LOOKING EARLY

Dalton High School senior Sherman Wilson, 17, applied at Belk, Foot Locker, Wal-Mart, Kmart and Bi-Lo. Nothing.

“My mom told me I’ve got to get a job so I stay away from the street,” Mr. Wilson said on a recent night at the Dalton Community Center. “I guess she understood. Like, I tried.”

Sitting next to him was Michael Russell, 18, who commiserated about the job market.

“They always give you the same line: ‘We’ll call you back,’” said Mr. Russell, who lives with his parents and was mainly looking to earn some money before he leaves for basic training with the U.S. Army Reserve.

After several failed attempts to find work, Mr. Russell landed a job at the Dalton Community Center’s summer camp.

Community Center Director Tom Pinson hires four teens for summer camp every year.

And to those teens he can’t give a job, he gives advice about searching: Apply early, keep your options open and spread the word that you’re looking.

Grab a rake and do yard work for neighbors if all else fails, he said.

“When I was young,” Mr. Pinson added, “that’s what we used to do.”