Free State High School students already have learned one of the age-old rules of landing a job in the “real world” — it’s about who you know.

Lawrence teenagers are learning that lesson as they begin searching for summer and part-time jobs.

Kelly Renick, a junior at Free State High School, was among the students who attended a 30-minute job fair in March at the school.

“You really almost have to know somebody to get a job in this town if you’re a teen,” said Renick, who snagged a job at Stone Creek because she knew the restaurant’s manager. “If you don’t know somebody, you’re in trouble.”

The state doesn’t have statistics about teenage employment. But there is national data that supports what Lawrence teens are saying.

A recent study by Boston’s Northeastern University found the number of unemployed youth who are 16 to 24 years old and out of school increased from 4.9 million in 2000 to 5.5 million in 2002.

The study also found that in 2001 and 2002, the number of 16 to 24 year olds who were employed fell by 4 percentage points. The number of people who were at least 25 years old and employed fell by 1.4 percentage points.

More competition

Sara Heckman doesn’t know the statistics. She just knows her job searches have begun to make her feel uneasy.

Heckman is a senior at Free State, and graduation is approaching. She’s planning to continue her education after high school.

“I have to get a job to pay the rent,” Heckman said. “I’m kind of nervous.”

Heckman has two part-time jobs — one at Sears and one at Brandon Woods Retirement Community. Both pay less than $7 an hour. Heckman said she thought she needed a job that paid closer to $10 an hour.

Join the club. Some say teens are having problems finding jobs because there are plenty of other people looking for work as well.

Teena Johnson, sponsor for Free State’s Key Club and an organizer of the job fair in mid-March, said Lawrence teens were at a particular disadvantage because they had to compete with college students for summer jobs.

College students looking for work in Lawrence is nothing new. But Johnson said she suspected that more college students were hanging on to their part-time jobs because they weren’t having any luck finding a job in their chosen careers.

“Unemployment has hurt the college students, too,” Johnson said.

When an employer has a choice between a college student and a high school student, the college student almost always wins, according to Lawrence teens.

“Nobody wants to hire people with no experience,” said Bridget Falley, a sophomore at Free State, who hasn’t found a job.

Cheryl White, a manager at the Lawrence Workforce Center, said there was more to it than experience. She said employers often chose college students because their schedules were more flexible than high school students.

“College students also give employers a little bit more latitude in how they can be used,” White said. “You don’t have to worry about child labor laws.”

Back to basics

And teens are battling more than college students for jobs.

Karen Reed, a personnel recruiter with the city of Lawrence, helps fill about 400 summer positions, primarily for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Parks and Recreation historically has been an easy place for teens to land a job. But Reed said she was receiving more applications from all ages.

“I definitely have more adults applying,” Reed said. “It started about two years ago, but I think it was even more so this summer.”

That says a lot about the job market because Parks and Recreation jobs aren’t part of anyone’s get-rich-quick plan; the jobs pay an average of about $8 an hour. But Reed said adults had good reasons to apply. They need a paycheck, and a summer job could open a door for another job.

“A lot of adults are finding it as a way to get their foot in the door,” Reed said. “They may get to meet some people who will lead them to some other type of job opportunity. That’s the real benefit.”

Plugging away

So what’s a teen to do? Apply, apply, apply.

That was the strategy Free State sophomore Dustin Barnes used.

“I definitely didn’t want to work fast food,” Barnes said. “So I applied at any job that didn’t involve fast food. I just applied all over the place.”

Barnes estimated he was rejected by 10 companies before he finally received a job at T.J. Maxx, a national retailer that recently opened a store on South Iowa Street.

Getting an application in early with a new store is often a good strategy for teens to follow, Johnson said. That’s because new stores have many positions to fill at once, which gives teens a better chance to land a job than with a company that is trying to replace only one or two staff members.

“A lot of kids out here were excited to hear about T.J. Maxx and Michaels coming to town,” Johnson said.

White, of the Lawrence Workforce Center, also suggested that students might have to change their expectations. She said students should be prepared to take a job even if it only offers them 10 hours per week. She said it could be easier for teens to find two or three of those jobs than one 40-hour-a-week position.

“They need to do what they can to get their foot in the door,” White said.