Jobs with good pay are plentiful for teens in the Twin Cities

Why it matters: The jobs provide an opportunity for teens to learn new skills and make cash to pay for college or living expenses.

• Meanwhile, employers can use all the help they can get, especially in food service and retail, as well as industries that rely on seasonal labor in the summer.

Reality check: Teen labor participation in Minnesota is still well below the early 2000s when 64% of teens were working.

• Labor participation declined during the 2000s as kids spent more time on academics and lower-wage jobs were less plentiful, according to Brookings.

Between the lines: It's easy to see why more youngsters are getting jobs, as median hourly wages for teens surpassed $15 an hour last summer — a 13.4% increase over the summer of 2021, per DEED data.

The bottom line: With retail and hospitality businesses still facing a labor shortage, "there should be an abundance of job opportunities for youth who want to work this summer," wrote DEED researcher Oriane Casale.