2000 Employment Experience of Youths: Results from a Longitudinal Survey — 2000-12-07

Working while in school is the norm among older high school students. Nearly three out of every five students (58 percent) who were 16 years old when the 1997-98 school year began worked for an employer at some point during the academic year, according to a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. These findings are from the second round of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, a nationally representative sample of about 9,000 young men and women who were born during the years 1980 to 1984. These respondents were ages 12 to 17 when first interviewed in 1997 and ages 13 to 19 when interviewed a second time in 1998-99. The survey provides information on the employment experiences, schooling, family background, social behavior, and other characteristics of these youths. This release focuses on the employment experiences of these youths both during the school year and the summer.