In the contemporary United States, part-time employment during the high school years has become an integral part of the “new passage” between education and work. Unlike the situation in Germany, Japan, and other countries, adolescent part-time work occurs in the context of a relatively unstructured school-to-work transition (Hamilton, 1990; Rosenbaum, Kariya, Settersten, & Maier, 1990). That is, in the United States, there is relatively little institutional support for young people as they embark on their job searches on completing their formal educations. This is especially true for those who do not complete a 4-year college degree (William T. Grant Foundation, 1988). In view of the high youth unemployment rates that result from this situation (Petersen & Mortimer, 1994), new initiatives to heighten the linkage between school and work, with support from the federal government, are now being developed (Borman, Cookson, Sadovnik, & Spade, 1996). Most youth, however, lack such support and must find out about the world of work – and forge their entry to the labor market – on their own.

Without the benefit of apprenticeship programs or strong connections between schools and employers, almost all high-school students in the United States obtain employment in the “youth labor market,” consisting largely of service-sector jobs, even before leaving high school (Manning, 1990).