By Seth Freedland

Town Crier Editorial Intern

While adults suffer through the worst job market in years, teen-agers also face difficulty finding suitable employment. As summer winds to a close, students home from college have realized some hard truths - a feeble job market, with competition from high school students and laid-off high-tech workers, results in aggravation and disappointment.

At Round Table Pizza in Los Altos, staff numbers have dwindled to a bare minimum. Besides the pizza chefs and a manager or two, a single employee is in charge of every day-to-day facet of the pizzeria. Her name is Elizabeth and she sees today’s economy as “terrible.”

“There’s no business. There’s nothing right now,” she said.

One of her managers, Claire Jimenez, can’t remember a more unfavorable financial situation.

“I’ve been here for six or seven years and this is the worst I’ve seen it,” she said. “We had a lot of ex-employees who wanted to come back, but we couldn’t afford it.”

Roy Griffin, manager of The Imaginarium in downtown Los Altos, was also frustrated with his inability to hire more people.

“We had a huge number of applications,” he said. “Many were kids home for the summer, and we can only hire so many per hour. Even with more applications out there, a lot of students are out of work. Many are forced to do jobs they wouldn’t normally do.”

One student who fits this category is Liora Saad, a Palo Alto resident who attends American University in Washington, D.C.

“It was horrible,” Saad recalled. “All I wanted to do was be a waitress or a hostess. I applied to a ton of places but no one would hire due to lack of experience. But the reason I had no experience was because no one would hire me. It was very frustrating.”

Saad was eventually forced to take a low-paying internship.

Bill Moynihan, assistant director of Andronico’s in Los Altos, looks at the bigger picture.

“There’re more people looking for entry-level positions over high-tech positions,” he said. “Many high-tech companies aren’t hiring, so we’ve had a lot more to choose from. I think there are a lot of people in transition (with) high-tech people getting laid off. I don’t think they see the grocery store as a career. It’s a filler for right now.”

Moynihan said he often hears tales of disappointment and shattered dreams.

“Some of the students who work for me are always talking about getting jobs at high-tech firms,” he said. “But now, they’re forced to work at more established jobs. Every day there’s another (new business) filing for bankruptcy. I think people realize these companies that haven’t been around for 10 years aren’t that stable.”

Another pressure pushing college students to take smaller jobs is competition - oftentimes from people a few years younger.

“High school kids grabbed all the available jobs before we could even get home,” Saad said. “College kids can’t find big jobs, so we’re forced to go to smaller, overstaffed ones or compete for internships.”

Moynihan has witnessed this heightened competition.

“(Andronico’s) had 30 or 40 applications for 10 positions,” he said. “Usually we get a dozen or so.”

Josh Karlin-Resnick, a Los Altos resident attending Boston University, was completely unable to find work this summer.

“When I came home from school in early June, every employer said they had hired their summer staff,” he said. “(As a college student), I need a way to earn money and I need something to do over the summer. College students come home…and instead of sitting around they could be providing valuable services for the community.”

Even with all the economic doom and gloom, Karlin-Resnick is able to find a silver lining.

“I think not being able to find a job gives people valuable experience in the real world,” he said. “Jobs don’t grow on trees. College and high school students need to learn that unfortunately the economic boom we grew up in is not going to be a full-time reality.”

Certain programs exist for students to find employment. Kim Jackson directs the Project Workability, a state-funded grant given to the Mountain View-Los Altos High School District to assist special education students with job placement. Jackson sees jobs as more than money-makers for students.

“Students need work for the experience,” she said. “It’s a different environment from school. They learn dependence, decision-making, ethics in the workplace. These aren’t things young people can learn from a book. Education has two parts - schoolwork and real-world experience.”

Karen Oeh, Career Center Coordinator for Foothill College, admits the difficulties for teenagers and offers some advice.

“Students have a much harder time in this economy,” she said. “Not only do they have to compete with professionals or students with a four-year degree, but the jobs are scarce. The solution, really, is to work on interpersonal skills and be resourceful, creative and take initiative - and hope for the best.”