Here's the bad news: The national market for teens is horrible -- the worst in 60 years, according to one annual accounting.

"We probably get at least 100 applications a week," said Lori Allred, operator of the Chick-fil-A at Crabtree Valley Mall. "I don't hire anyone who is only available for the summer."

Even in a bad market, thousands of teenagers will be found running cash registers, guarding pools, stocking shelves and doing countless other jobs this summer.

But thousands won't be working at all, and part-timers will probably get squeezed.

"With the economy like it is, I need to meet the priorities of my full-time people who are paying rent and mortgages," Allred said. "They need more hours just to cover the increased costs of gas."

According to a study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, 34.2 percent of eligible teens expect to work this summer -- the lowest since recordkeeping started in 1948.

The high water mark was 45.2 percent in the summer of 2000.

Jeff Buck, who owns seven Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shops in the Triangle, said he noticed a different mix of applications this year.

"If anything, we are getting more older people and college students," Buck said. "In some stores they also seem to be more flexible about the hours they will work."

But an employer's need for flexibility can be an anchor in teens' schedules. Many teens have no interest -- or simply can't -- block out 40 hours a week just in case the boss needs them for a fraction of that time.

Justin Abbott is trying to get around that problem by creating his own job.

A rising junior at Millbrook High School in Raleigh, Abbott plays in a baseball league and has a church mission trip to Mexico planned. He knew his time would be tight this summer. "But we were also on him to do something to help pay for the gas," said his mother, Melanie Abbott.

So Justin and a friend printed 200 fliers offering landscaping services and power washing in their North Ridge neighborhood.

He walked home this week with $100 in his pocket and leads on a few more jobs. "It would be good to get something where we go back every week," he said.

Start early

That kind of consistency is easier for teens to find when they start the job hunt early.

Suzanne Kirkland, a rising senior at Millbrook, took that approach when she got her lifeguard certification in March for a job she started in mid-May.

"This was one of the only jobs I could think of that I knew I would enjoy," Kirkland said.

The director of career placement services at UNC-Chapel Hill encourages students to apply for summer internships months before they begin, even if they have to move out of town and pay living expenses. That's especially true in the current economy.

"There are companies that are delaying entry-level hiring in a downturn and hiring more interns because they can be terminated at the end of the summer," said the director, Marcia Harris. "Then when they do hire, those people come from the former intern pool."

That kind of inside track to a job is what rising senior Victor Wortham of N.C. Central University discovered when he took an internship last year at Northwestern Mutual. Now in his second summer with the company, he hopes to work there full-time.

"It's a huge advantage," he said. "It's an immediate career option."

Going door-to-door

It might pay to break away from the pack and do the job others never think of. Southwestern Co. of Nashville, Tenn., has offered that chance to college kids for 140 years.

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