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TWC Offers Tips to Teens, Employers for Summer Hiring During the summer months, thousands of youth gain valuable work experience. Among employment opportunities for youth in Texas are traditional summer jobs in parks and recreation, leisure and hospitality, libraries, and other community organizations. “Seasonal summer jobs offer young Texans an opportunity to earn income, while gaining valuable work experience.” said Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chairman Tom Pauken. “Texas workforce centers provide valuable information and can serve as a core resource as teens start their job searches.” TWC offers the following important tips to teens as they seek summer employment: · Register for job alerts on www.WorkInTexas.com, TWC’s online job-matching Web site. · Look for work in a field that you find interesting. Volunteer work is excellent way to broaden your résumé and can open doors to landing a job in that field. · Visit with a parent, teacher or other mentor about typical interview questions that you will have to answer and do a mock interview. · Smile and be friendly to each person you encounter at that business, even as you are filling out the application and turning it in. · Once you are scheduled for an interview, learn as much as you can about the business and even consider visiting that place of business at least a day ahead of time. · After the interview, thank your interviewer and follow up with a thank you note. TWC reminds employers, workers and parents to familiarize themselves with state and federal laws, as well as safety regulations that address child labor issues. Any person under the age of 18 is considered a child when employed. Federal and state child labor laws protect youth against potentially detrimental occupational settings or working conditions that could interfere with their safety, health or well-being. Different child labor laws apply to different age groups. For example, teens who are age 16 or 17 can perform work for any number of hours, as long as it is not deemed hazardous by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Children aged 14 or 15 may perform a job beyond traditional school hours in some nonmanufacturing, nonmining and nonhazardous jobs, but only under certain conditions. Because operating power-driven lawnmowers is considered dangerous, 14- and 15-year olds are prohibited from that activity, but children ages 16 and 17 are permitted to do so. Job-related functions prohibited by law and considered inappropriate or unsafe for teens include any operations on or about a roof, jobs involving power-driven woodworking machines, employment involving manufacturing or storing explosives, and logging and sawmilling. Teens seeking job-search assistance can visit their local workforce centers, a list of which can be found at http://www.twc.state.tx.us/dirs/wdas/wdamap.html. For other information on prohibited jobs or those with restrictions, employers or prospective summer youth workers can visit http://youthrules.dol.gov/jobs.htm. To learn more about child labor laws, call TWC’s Labor Law Section at (800) 832-9243 or (512) 837-9559, or visit online at http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/lablaw/lablaw.html. More employer or workers services are available online at www.texasworkforce.org.
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