As students head back to school this fall, today’s release of the August jobs numbers provides the first complete look at the summer job market for teens.  As a whole, the stronger start to the 2015 summer jobs season (compared to last summer) signaled by the June youth employment numbers was sustained throughout the summer.  According to seasonally unadjusted teen employment-to-population (EPOP) ratios, averaged for the months of June, July and August, African American youth experienced the largest boost to summer employment compared to last year.  Summer employment was up 2.5 percentage points for black teens, compared to a 1.5 percentage point increase for Hispanic youth and a 1.2 percentage point increase for white teens, as shown in the figure below.  Though black teens continue to have the lowest rates of employment, the 2015 summer youth employment rate for black teens was closer to its 2007 pre-Great Recession rate than were those of white and Hispanic youth.

Similarly, black teens also saw the largest boost in summer labor force participation (up 2.7 percentage points) this year, while summer labor force participation for white and Hispanic teens remained flat, as you can see in the next figure.  Summer labor force participation rates for all groups of teens plateaued for several years after the 2001 recession.  While a similar pattern is observed for white teens following the Great Recession in 2007, the rates for black and Hispanic teens have been generally rising.  This new pattern may be reflective of the fact that black and Latino households were hardest hit by the recession and had much less wealth to fall back on during the downturn.  As a result, black and Latino youth have had to increase labor force activity more quickly in order to help their families.