Camille Fittell, 17, who will be a senior at Free State High School, looks for cover as she is bombarded with foam cubes by Anya Johnson, 11, left, and Chelsea Kielman, 12, right, Thursday at the Lawrence Gymnastics Academy, 4930 Legends Drive. Fittell, an employee, works to help pay for gas and clothes. She said she began working there when she was 13 because the academy needed employees and her sister had worked there. The summer job market for teens nationwide is tough, but that doesn't seem to be the case in Lawrence.

Kevin Frantz, 18, who just graduated from Free State High, washes a golf cart Thursday at the Alvamar Country Club. Frantz plans to attend KU in the fall. He works 20-25 hours per week at Alvamar Country Club, where he has been working for about a month. He said many of his friends work at other golf courses and he likes the gig better than mowing lawns, which he has done since the age of 13.

As higher food and gasoline prices pinch parents’ pocketbooks, their teenagers may be forced to cut spending or find summer jobs.

But, finding a job may not be easy.

“It does look like it is going to be a tough job market for teens,” said Cathy McCarthy, senior vice president of marketing for SnagAJob.com. “We reached out to about 1,000 managers who are directly responsible for hiring hourly workers for the summer and 49 percent said they weren’t planning on doing any hiring this summer.”

McCarthy said the survey was done nationwide and covered a range of industries such as movie theaters, restaurants and retail stores; the percentage was similar nationwide. In the Midwest, it was 47 percent.

The tough economy weighed heavily on their decisions not to hire. Thirty-one percent of the managers said they didn’t have the budget, while 18 percent said they expected business to decline.

According to a research paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, a little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer – the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948.

“When you go into a recession, kids always get hit hardest,” Andrew Sum, an economist at the Center for Labor Market Studies, said in a New York Times article. “Kids always go to the back of the hiring queue. Now they find themselves with a lot of other people in line ahead of them.”

Not cutting back

Despite all that doom and gloom, that line doesn’t seem to exist in Lawrence. Out of 10 hiring managers contacted in Lawrence, none of them was cutting back on summer hires and many have job openings.

“We are still hiring,” said Nichole Mattingly, supervisor of Old Navy. She said they recently hired a couple of teenagers and need to hire a couple more, which would be a few more than previous summers.

At Hy-Vee Food Store on Clinton Parkway, Twilla Brown is just beginning to wade through the usual pile of summer applications on her desk. She has hired 10 workers and plans to hire up to 30 more, which would be comparable to previous years.

And there are job openings at several McDonald’s restaurants in Lawrence, said Aletia Vaughn, human resources manager. She said the work force at the four Lawrence McDonald’s hadn’t been reduced because of the slumping economy.

Is it slumping?

Economists said that it is sluggish, just not as much in Kansas where they described the job market as “reasonably good.”

“When we compare ourselves to the national level, I think we fare better,” said Inayat Noormohmad, senior labor economist for the Kansas Department of Labor. “So, the students or those youths who are seeking to work during the summer may not find it as difficult to find a job in Kansas compared to other states.”

He pointed to the Conference Board’s Help-Wanted Advertising Index, which looks at the number of job openings. Nationwide, the openings were down 16 percent in April compared to a year ago, but up 3 percent in Kansas.

Ernie Goss, professor of economics at Creighton University, said the nine-state Mid-America region that includes Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, is outperforming the rest of the nation. That’s because the downturn in the housing market hasn’t been as severe. He also said strong farm income and biofuels production is boosting the economy.

“It’s not quite as strong as it was two years ago, but it’s still pretty strong,” Goss said. “So, teens looking for jobs shouldn’t have too difficult of a time.”

Sarah Robinson, 17, agrees. The recent Free State High School graduate began working when she turned 16. This summer she landed a job teaching swimming lessons at the city’s aquatics centers after hearing about the opening from friends.

Robinson said she’s hasn’t had trouble landing a job in Lawrence, where she has worked at First Watch, Vermont Street BBQ and Brandon Woods Retirement Community.

“I just applied at a bunch of places and usually heard back from a few,” she said.

Maggie Hull, 17, who will be a senior at FSHS, began working this week at Jock’s Nitch Sporting Goods.

“I am working because my parents were wanting me to get a job, but also for some extra spending money. I am trying to save up for trips and stuff like that,” she said.

She said many of her friends had summer jobs as well. They were working at places such as Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar, Lawrence Gymnastics Academy and for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department as umpires and referees. Hull said many of them started their job searches “well in advance” and figured it would be more difficult to find employment now.

She might be right. Of those hiring managers surveyed by SnagAJob.com, 76 percent expected to fill their summer job positions by May. But, McCarthy encouraged teenagers to go ahead and apply because sometimes new hires don’t work out.

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Jacobs wants to land a job when she turns 16 on July 28. She’s already started asking potential employers if they have openings.

“I am broke,” she said. She also doesn’t like asking her parents for money.

But, she has put limits on what she’s willing to do.

“I do not want to work in fast food. That’s kind of my limit right there,” she said.