Despite 315,000 jobs being added in the U.S. in August, the national unemployment rate increased by .2% to 3.7%.

The biggest culprit: The number of Americans in the labor market went up in August. Nearly 600,000 Americans attempted to rejoin the labor market. With more Americans also of working age, the total size of the U.S. workforce grew by 786,000 Americans in August.

The workforce includes people currently employed or looking for jobs.

"There is clear evidence that the employment situation continues to be strong," said Scott Blumsack, chief strategy officer at Monster. "But there's a little bit of evidence that things are starting to moderate a bit."

Blumsack said a large number of available jobs could be nudging people back into the workforce.

But the household budget could be playing a role, as well.

"We saw the personal savings rate increase significantly through the pandemic," Blumsack said. "Now, especially with the impact of inflation, people have less of that financial cushion. With inflation being what it is, that may be an incentive to go back."

In addition to older Americans rejoining the labor market, nearly 300,000 workers aged 16-19 entered the workforce.

The national workforce participation rate increased by .3% to 62.4%. The labor participation rate, however, remains below pre-pandemic levels.

"There are still a lot of factors, driven by the pandemic and the experience we've had over the last few years, that are keeping labor force participation down," said Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor.

"The most prominent example is long COVID," Zhao said. "That's still a huge question mark, how many people we can actually get back into the labor force in the long run."

All told, there were nearly 442,000 more employed Americans in August compared to July. There were also 344,000 additional Americans collecting unemployment benefits during the month.

One industry not seeing as much growth is leisure and hospitality. The industry added 31,000 jobs following average monthly gains of 90,000 in the first sevens months of the year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted. Employment in leisure and hospitality is below its February 2020 level by 1.2 million, or 7.2 percent, the BLS said.

Kwasi Bandoh, a senior recruiter for an airline, stood before a group of aviation mechanic students at their graduation ceremony last month and congratulated them for all having jobs.

Video above: There is a massive air traffic controller shortage ahead of busy summer travel season

As some of the students began nudging each other, Bandoh realized that perhaps not every one of them had already been hired.

"Who doesn't have a job?" Bandoh demanded, surveying the 15 graduates before him at the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics' training facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. "Who doesn't? Because I have a job for you."

The crowd of about 70 friends and relatives, gathered in a hangar where the students had been trained, laughed appreciatively. Fourteen of the 15 graduates did have jobs, and the only one who didn't have an interview lined up for the next day.

As happy as the moment was for the graduates, it epitomized the struggles of recruiters for airlines, plane manufacturers and repair shops that are desperately seeking mechanics. Most of their existing mechanics are aging, and travel demand is growing.

Across the U.S. economy, other industries, too, face the same formidable challenge: Replenishing a workforce diminished by a surge of retirements that began during the pandemic and has continued since. It's a growing problem in such fields as construction, manufacturing, nursing and some professional industries like accounting.

Since 2019, the proportion of retirees in the U.S. population has risen from 18% to nearly 20%, according to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — equivalent to about 3.5 million fewer workers. And the trend seems sure to accelerate: The percentage of workers who are 55 or older is nearly 24%, up from only about 15% two decades ago.

The surge of retirements, along with a slowdown in immigration that began during the pandemic, are the primary factors behind the labor shortages that continue to bedevil some employers.

The aging workforce also helps explain the confounding nature of the economy right now. Even as the Federal Reserve has relentlessly pumped up interest rates to fight high inflation, hiring has remained surprisingly robust. Regardless of where interest rates are, many employers simply need to replace people who have left.

Job growth has been stronger, in fact, than economic growth would suggest. The economy expanded at a mediocre 1.3% annual rate in the first three months of 2023. Yet hiring was robust, averaging nearly 300,000 jobs a month. In April, the unemployment rate reached a half-century low of 3.4%. On Friday, the government will issue the May employment report, which economists predict will show another solid gain of about 190,000 jobs.

Companies that must fill jobs tend to raise pay to attract and keep workers — a trend that can fuel inflation as those same employers typically raise their prices to cover their higher labor costs. That dynamic is complicating the Fed's efforts to tame inflation.

In the airline industry, more than one-third of mechanics are between 55 and 64, according to government data. Fewer than one in 10 are under 30.

"Everybody's getting ready to retire, and not enough people are coming in to take the jobs," said Mike Myers, a maintenance manager for Piedmont Airlines, in Hagerstown, a regional feeder for American Airlines.

The new graduates of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics have been awed by how much they're in demand. One of them, Will Gower, said he weighed multiple job offers at nearly twice the $15-an-hour wage he had earned at the retail job he held while in school.

"It was almost overwhelming how many companies were throwing jobs at you," said Gower, 21. "Anywhere there's an airport you can go work."

Next month, Gower will join CommuteAir, Bandoh's company, along with three of his classmates, and will receive further training in Houston.

In the past year, the air travel industry has hired roughly 45,000 people, enlarging its workforce by 9%, to more than a half-million. That's triple the pace of the U.S. economy's overall hiring.

United Airlines has said it plans to hire 15,000 workers this year and more in coming years. It expects to add 2,300 pilots, in part to offset about 500 retirements. Kate Gebo, United's executive vice president of human resources, said she foresees a shortage of airplane mechanics, with up to half of United's mechanics already eligible to retire.

In the construction industry, the proportion of workers ages 55 and older doubled from 2003 to 2020, to nearly one-quarter, according to the government.

Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group, said that in addition to aging, industries like aviation maintenance and construction share another challenge: Fewer young people want to take jobs in what are often perceived as less-secure, blue-collar work.

When the now-retiring baby boomers began working, Basu said, "There was the notion that being a blue-collar tradesperson was a solid and secure path to prosperity." But as factories shut down across the country, "the notion increasingly became that for one to become part of the American middle class, one would likely need to have more formal education, namely, a bachelor's degree."

The result, he said, is an economy short of factory workers, backhoe operators, welders, electricians and other skilled trade workers.

If there's one trend that might ease, if not solve, the problem it's that Americans below retirement age have been re-entering the job market, likely drawn by steady hiring and higher pay levels. The proportion of these adults who either have a job or are looking for one now exceeds pre-pandemic levels.

Yet for now, an aging workforce remains a problem even for some white-collar jobs, particularly accounting. About three-quarters of accountants are "nearing 60" and approaching retirement, according to the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants.

Tom Hood, an executive vice president of the association, said the industry is finding it hard to attract young college graduates. Many of them prefer data science or finance, while accounting struggles with a stuffier, more old-fashioned image.

"We're getting squeezed from the older part and the younger part as well," Hood said.

Nela Richardson, chief economist at the payroll provider ADP, said research shows that countries that have many retirees who spend money and consume and have fewer people working typically face higher inflation. In those countries, demand for goods and services tends to exceed the supply.

"This is the missing piece in terms of our dialogue about, can the Fed drive inflation back down to" its 2% target? Richardson said.

Some economists have said they worry that the job market's resilience, and the resulting fear that inflation will remain high, will lead the Fed to send its benchmark rate even higher, which could derail the economy and cause a recession.

Gower, who is from Covington, Louisiana, near New Orleans, isn't exactly worried about a recession. His new job as a line mechanic at Commute Air will pay $30 an hour to start, plus higher wages for night shifts.

"We've all got great futures ahead of us," he said.

Brian Prentice, a partner at the OliverWyman consulting firm, estimates that the aviation industry will endure a shortage of up to 18,000 mechanics this year — about 12% of current staffing levels. It will likely boost pay levels across the industry.

Mindy Pavlonis, associate director of career services for the aeronautics institute, noted that entry-level pay has jumped from about $18 an hour in 2018 to the upper-$20s an hour now.

More financial aid for young people to receive training can help address the worker shortfall, Prentice said, a benefit that some airlines are starting to provide. Myers, the manager at Piedmont, said his company now offers scholarships that pay full tuition to schools like the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics. In return, the student must work at Piedmont for two years.

They will even set up new students with a $6,500 toolbox, he added.

Erik Hansen, a lobbyist for the U.S. Travel Association, says his group is pushing for more funding for a federal development program that would subsidize aviation maintenance training schools and support more outreach to high schools to promote the industry as a career.

Without more workers, he said, further flight delays will inevitably result.

"You have an airplane that has a mechanical issue, and it needs to be fixed before it's turned around," Hansen said. "It takes longer for the mechanics to get to it. There's going to be a flight delay. So it's absolutely something we need to address."

KANSAS CITY, MO — Mark Byrd is in the business of second chances.

An HVAC specialist by trade, his passion to help people re-entering society from the prison system started more than a decade ago when he started KC Redemtion and the New Reflections Technical Institute, a job training program that prepares students for their new life.

"We try to help them get to a point where they can survive and be sustainable and to have a good life, you know, and most of them never realized they could have it," he said.

He's helping students like Otis Steen, who went from the judicial system, to financial stability by becoming a truck driver.

"As a person looking from the outside in, it seemed like a dream, like a fantasy. But going through it, it's still like a dream, like a dream state, like, 'Wow, is this true?'" said Steen.

Employment reduced recidivism and makes communities safer. While Byrd believes in his students, it can be an uphill battle convincing employers to give them their second chance.

However, he’s noticed recently that the Great Resignation has been opening more doors.

"When we first started it, we had one company that was felon-friendly. Now, we have over 70," he said.

In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said a record high of 4.5 million people quit their job that month alone. We’ve seen the impacts of the Great Resignation reflected in food service, deliveries, and supply chain tangles.

Every year, 600,000 Americans leave the judicial system looking for employment. Although more than 1 in 4 people re-entering society is unemployed, studies have shown that they stay at their jobs longer and are less likely to quit than the general workforce.

"This person here wants that opportunity. This is their second chance might even be their third chance, but in most cases, it's their last chance. So, when they get this opportunity there, their work starts at seven o'clock. They're there at 6:30, drinking coffee in their hand, ready to go," said Byrd.

"We get calls or emails on a weekly basis," said Dwayne Williams, the president and CEO of 12^th Street Heritage Development Corporation in Kansas City.

A decade years ago, they started a re-entry program and are noticing exactly what Mark has been: more employers looking to hire their clients.

"We have individuals who are looking for jobs. And so now, they've got another resource that they can, that they can tap," Williams said.

"I think a lot of employers will be surprised at the work ethic of individuals who come out of the system, you know, because a lot of them, they really not trying to go back to the system," said Gary Riley.

Riley has been with 12th Street for years. He says getting that second chance turned his life around.

"It helped me be a better man for tomorrow. You know what I mean? It showed me how to dig within deep, within to be the leader that I know I can be the follower I know I can be," he said.

As people like Byrd and Williams continue to match their students with employers, they hope this trend of hiring more people looking for a second chance continues well after the great resignation subsides.

"I advise our employees to look deep into themselves and figure out that mistake they made and what they needed and who helped them, who helped them. Now, it's their time to help someone else, and we can rebuild America. We can rebuild our workforce," said Byrd.

Job posting site Monster released its hiring outlook for 2022 on Friday.

93% of employers plan to look for new workers this year.

That’s up from 82% in 2020.

Half of those hires will replace or backfill staff.

More than 40% of hires will be for new positions, exceeding expectations from 2021.

However, employers are having a tough time hiring candidates.

Many companies are now competing against each other to entice workers.

While many employers have open positions, they’re having a difficult time finding candidates with the right skills.

9 out of 10 employers told Monster they are struggling to fill positions due to a skills gap.

They report that the skills gap has increased from one year ago.

It is mostly large companies looking to hire.

Small businesses are expected to have hiring freezes during 2022.

Companies are starting to lose hope when it comes to hiring.

For the third year in a row, confidence regarding hiring is on a downward trend, Monster reports.

It’s not just companies feeling negative about the hiring process.

Nearly one-quarter of candidates told Monster they are skeptical of the promises companies make about job expectations, benefits, perks, and culture.

Most of those skeptics are Millennials.

The Employment Cost Index released Friday shows hiring is slowing down.

It rose 1% in the last quarter of 2022, falling short of economists' expectations.

The number was driven by a high number of job openings and resignations hitting new records.

What will the job market look like in 2022? It's no surprise — experts say flexibility will continue to be the key to success.

"What you are going to find is that there are going to be continuing fluctuations at various companies around the country," said Lisa Rowan, a consumer finance expert at Forbes Advisor. "You're going to have maybe some COVID hotspots where you might have to shift back to that remote environment."

The biggest opportunity for employment will continue to be hospitality and leisure fields. However, experts are seeing more jobs pop up as "remote."

"So if you're someone who worked in a customer-facing job, say, retail or one of those leisure positions, you might be able to work in customer service and work from home, online," Rowan said. "So, we're seeing a lot of shift there, too, but so much of it is in those services that we've been relying on since the pandemic changed our lifestyles."

Ultimately, prepare to see a lot of fluctuations at various companies around the country — meaning that plenty of job title changes and streamlining may be on the way.

Thursday's unemployment report from the Labor Department shows claims dropped closer to pre-pandemic levels.

It was also the lowest level for initial claims since early March 2020. Initial claims decreased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 for the second week of November.

“For the unemployment claims numbers, we definitely have seen a drop in recent times and that could be positive to the degree that it’s reflected of more people either not losing their jobs, or moving from the unemployed category to the employed category,” said John Quinterno, a visiting professor of practice at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Quinterno said the numbers reflect the pandemic.

“The economy’s trajectory is intertwined with the pandemic trajectory,” he said.

Unemployment claims are trending down, yet a lot of jobs in certain industries like hospitality and travel are still going unfilled.

“The jobs that are open are in a place where the labor doesn't want to move. And I think that is the reason why we are having some disequilibrium in the labor market,” said Kishore Kulkarni, an economics professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Kulkarni said workers have changed what they want out of a job.

“The labor is not really interested in doing the on-site job. They are more used to doing work from home. They understand that the cost of going to the onsite job, they have to have vaccination, they have to have a mask on all eight hours of the day,” Kulkarni said.

And there are fewer workers to fill the roles in the first place.

“Going back to February 2020, there are still about 4.5 million fewer workers in the labor force than there were when we started, so folks have exited,” Quinterno said.

Quinterno said that could be due to a number of factors like retirement, health risks, and childcare.

So what can people expect moving forward?

“We need to first get the public health side, the pandemic side, under control. Otherwise, we’ll just continue to be riding these waves of a few months of progress when case numbers go down, and then we’ll have more hardship when the case numbers go back up,” Quinterno said.

Kulkarni said it’s impossible to predict, but the progress of the pandemic will be a good indicator.

DENVER, Co. — Sean Holland has driven the same route for work every day for more than 20 years. He says it hasn't gotten boring yet.

"It's not your 9 to 5 job," Holland said. "If that's what you're looking for, this isn't it."

Holland is a UPS driver in suburban Denver. He took the job in the early '90s, and since 1995, he's been driving the same truck: Bertha.

"I've had her, next month, it will be 26 years," Holland said. "The old girl, she comes out full to the gills every day. I get rid of all that, and then we do another pickup run in the afternoon and fill it back up. There's a sense of accomplishment that goes along with that."

Holland and delivery drivers across the country were deemed essential workers at the height of the pandemic. Stay-at-home orders forced people to use delivery services at a higher rate. U.S. parcel volume went up 37% from 2019 to 2020.

UPS is hiring 100,000 seasonal workers this year to keep up with the demand as the holidays approach. But they are competing with other major companies in nearly every industry.

"We have a very robust recruiting approach," said Jeff Bloedorn, director of human resources at UPS. "We are heavily into the social media and making people aware of what UPS offers."

The company is starting some new hires at $23 an hour, with a $2,000 signing bonus. Bloedorn says there are other incentives, many of which can't be measured with dollars and cents.

"It’s a great teamwork atmosphere," Bloedorn said. "[People] like the hustle and bustle of moving all the packages... It’s a career that allows a person to take care of themselves and their family."

The pandemic has shifted a younger generation's opinion of work. A UPS survey found 9 in 10 millennials are "more open" to the types of jobs they'd accept.

But experts warn the life of a truck driver is still a difficult sell.

"I always ask my students this," said Dr. Robert Novack, a professor at Penn State University. "'How many of you would like to grow up and be a truck driver?' None of 'em."

Dr. Novack says the under-35 crowd is looking for fulfillment and purpose from a potential career. That can be tough to find from the driver's seat of a delivery truck.

"You see the rigs on the road, and as a car driver, they're an annoyance because they're big, they get in the way," Dr. Novack said. "We're working with some companies on trying to make the job of being a driver a little bit more suited to their needs. You know, treating them almost like an asset."

Holland agrees that the job can be tough.

"It's long hours, but like I said, it's rewarding," he said.

"I actually met my wife on my route out here," Holland said. "She was one of my customers for a couple years before we started dating, and ultimately got married, and now we’re married 21 years. You know, I've had dead-end jobs. And, yeah, I've been doing the same thing for almost 29 years now."

Holland smiled.

"But I love it."

CINCINNATI —

A bus driver shortage is wearing on school districts and parents across the nation. Ohio is even considering whether to have the National Guard step in to drive buses.

Massachusetts brought in the National Guard to drive students to school there.

Gov. Mike DeWine said last week, it's a possibility that could happen here in Ohio as well.

Right now, it's just the beginning of that discussion. But, one thing is for sure, drivers are desperately needed.

“She’s missed three days due to lack of transportation," Tanya Johnson said.

Her daughter has missed school because of a lack of bus service.

Johnson's 13-year-old daughter has attended St. Francis de Sales School since third grade. This is the first year she hasn't had transportation, making it a challenge for working parents.

“It’s like paying people out of pocket every day when we have to work to make money and pay the bills," Johnson said.

Johnson has been forced to send her daughter to school using Uber and Lyft.

School officials said Monday, they want answers from Cincinnati Public Schools.

“We have 230 students and over half of them need bus service and we only have two buses. We started out with six buses last year and we’re down to two buses this year," receptionist Greta Brandon said.

Brandon works at St. Francis de Sales. She goes in early to accommodate working parents and stays late to cover afterschool care.

Sycamore Community Schools is feeling the shortage too.

Mechanics, office staff and substitutes who are licensed school bus drivers have stepped up to keep the routes going.

“We’re trying," transportation director Mike Miller said. "We’re doing our very level best to get our kiddos to and from school safely every day. We’re doing our absolute best to accomplish that.”

While the National Guard is one option, nothing is off the table.

“What we’re really focusing on is thinking about this in a different way, thinking about maybe using full-time positions and driving bus just part-time of that full-time position," Doug Palmer said.

Palmer is with the Ohio School Boards Association and said even changing and staggering school start times is an option.

Meanwhile, Palmer said for 18 months now schools have been hard-pressed to get applicants.

He wants people to know there are a number of benefits offered for the part-time position if anyone out there wants to take on the job.

We reached out to Cincinnati Public Schools and are awaiting a response.

CINCINNATI —

A 40-year-old hiring and promotion policy that helped more women and minorities in the Cincinnati Police Department has been ruled unconstitutional.

The policy was born out of the 1981 consent decree, an effort to improve diversity within the ranks of the Cincinnati police department.

A federal ruling acknowledges that the consent decree has "positively affected the composition of CPD." But a federal judge ruled Thursday that the race-based and sex-based initiative is no longer needed.

The consent decree was signed onto by several parties including the city of Cincinnati, Cincinnati police department and Department of Justice in 1981, at a time women and minorities faced discrimination in hiring and promotion in the department.

The consent decree contains race-based and sex-based hiring and promotional goals for each recruit class and sergeant cohort. Under those goals, the department aimed to make each recruit class 34 percent Black and 23 percent female and to fill 25 percent of sergeant openings with black and female candidates.

According to the federal ruling, in July of 1980, 9.9 percent of the department was Black and 3.4 percent was female.

In January 2021, 28.3 percent of the department was Black and 22.9 percent was female.

The police department has 90 days to confer with the Department of Justice and submit modifications to the consent decree.

"We certainly wish the DOJ did not take this action as the consent decree has been important to our progress," Mayor John Cranley said in a statement. "We are evaluating all options to appeal and will do so if possible. We won't stop pressing our case."

The reconsideration of the hiring and promotion rule was prompted by a lawsuit filed by Erik Kohler, a Cincinnati police sergeant.

"Erik Kohler was promoted, but his promotion was delayed because the city promoted other candidates for sergeant ahead of him simply based on their race, even though they had a lower score on the promotional eligibility list," said his attorney Zachary Gottesman.

The federal ruling Thursday does not apply directly to Kohler's case but Gottesman said it is a win for them.

"Race-based and gender-based promotion and hiring programs can be legal if they meet very strict criteria, and the city has known for years and years that their policy did not comply with those legal requirements," Gottesman said.

Transportation Security Administration is looking to fill over 6,000 new airport security screener positions by summer 2021.

“TSOs are a critical first-line defense in securing our nation’s commercial air transportation system,” said Melanie Harvey, acting Executive Assistant Administrator for TSA’s Security Operations in a press release. “Each day, our officers screen hundreds of thousands of airline travelers ensuring they arrive at their destinations safely. We expect to screen a higher number of travelers regularly by the summer months and will need additional officers to support our critical mission.”

The move comes as TSA looks to recruit new employees as Americans get vaccinated and return to travel by air.

TSA will look to fill the positions at approximately 430 airports nationwide.

The agency is looking for both full-time and part-time staff.

Employees' benefits include access to medical coverage, vacation, sick leave, and retirement plans.

The owners of restaurants, amusement parks and retail shops, many of them desperate for workers, are sounding an unusual note of gratitude this summer:

Thank goodness for teenagers.

As the U.S. economy bounds back with unexpected speed from the pandemic recession and customer demand intensifies, high school-age kids are filling jobs that older workers can’t — or won’t.

The result is that teens who are willing to bus restaurant tables or serve as water-park lifeguards are commanding $15, $17 or more an hour, plus bonuses in some instances or money to help pay for school classes. The trend marks a shift from the period after the 2007-2009 Great Recession, when older workers often took such jobs and teens were sometimes squeezed out.

The time, an acute labor shortage, especially at restaurants, tourism and entertainment businesses, has made teenage workers highly popular again.

"We’re very thankful they are here,’" says Akash Kapoor, CEO of Curry Up Now. Fifty teenagers are working this summer at his five San Francisco-area Indian street food restaurants, up from only about a dozen last year. "We may not be open if they weren’t here. We need bodies."

The proportion of Americans ages 16-19 who are working is higher than it's been in years: In May, 33.2% of them had jobs, the highest such percentage since 2008. Though the figure dipped to 31.9% in June, the Labor Department reported Friday, that is still higher than it was before the pandemic devastated the economy last spring.

At the Cattivella Italian restaurant in Denver, for instance, Harry Hittle, 16, is earning up to $22.50 an hour, including tips, from his job clearing restaurant tables. He's used the windfall to buy gas and insurance for his car and has splurged on a road bike and an electric guitar.

"There's never been a better time to apply for a job if you're a teen," says Mathieu Stevenson, CEO of Snagajob, an online job site for hourly work.

Consider the findings of Neeta Fogg, Paul Harrington and Ishwar Khatiwada, researchers at Drexel University's Center for Labor Markets and Policy who issue an annual forecast for the teenage summer job market. This year, they predict, will be the best summer for teenage lifeguards, ice cream scoopers and sales clerks since 2008; 31.5% of 16- to 19-year-olds will have jobs.

Teenage employment had been on a long slide, leading many analysts to lament the end of summertime jobs that gave teens work experience and a chance to mingle with colleagues and customers from varying backgrounds.

In August 1978, 50% of teenagers were working, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Their employment rate hasn’t been that high since. The figure began a long slide in 2000 and fell especially steeply during the Great Recession. The eruption of coronavirus produced a new low: Only 26.3% of teens had jobs last summer, according to the Drexel researchers.

The long-term drop in teen employment has reflected both broad economic shifts and personal choices. The U.S. economy includes fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs — ready-made for teens — than it did in the 1970s and 1980s. And such jobs that do remain have been increasingly likely to be taken by older workers, many of them foreign born.

In addition, teens from affluent families, eager to secure admission to top universities, have for years chosen summer academic programs over jobs or have pursued ambitious volunteer work in hopes of distinguishing their applications for college. Others have spent their summers playing competitive sports.

This summer, things are rather different. After collapsing last spring, the economy has rebounded much faster than expected. Restaurants, bars, retail shops and amusement parks have been overwhelmed by pent-up demand from consumers who had mostly hunkered down for a year or more.

Now, those businesses need employees to handle the influx and are scrambling to find enough. The vaccine rollout was just starting in April and May, when employers typically start hiring for summer. Some of these businesses delayed their hiring decisions, unsure whether or when the economy would fully reopen.

Foreign workers, brought in on J-1 work-and-study visas, typically filled many such summer jobs. But President Donald Trump suspended those visas as a coronavirus precaution, and the number of U.S.-issued J-1 visas tumbled 69% in the fiscal 2020 year — to 108,510, from 353,279 the year before.

In past years, for example, foreigners visiting the U.S. on visas took filled 180 summer jobs at Big Kahuna's water park in Destin, Florida. Last year, there were just three. This year, eight. Desperate to attract local teens, Big Kahuna's, which is owned by Boomers Parks, is now paying $12 an hour, up from less than $10 an hour in past years.

Compounding the labor squeeze, many older Americans have been slow to respond to a record number of job openings. Some have lingering health concerns or trouble arranging or affording child care at a time when schools are transitioning from remote to in-person learning. Other adults may have been discouraged from seeking work because of generous federal unemployment benefits, though many states have dropped these benefits, and they will end nationwide on Sept. 6.

So businesses are offering signing bonuses and whatever else they can to hire teens in a hurry.

Wendy's, which relies on teens to salt fries and ring up orders, added a way for applicants to apply for a job through their smartphones. Applicants are screened using artificial intelligence, which gets them to an interview faster than if they uploaded a resume. The idea is to hire them before another employer can.

"Speed is critical," said Randy Pianin, CEO of JAE Restaurant Group, a franchisee that owns 220 Wendy’s locations. As a perk, JAE is offering workers a way to get hold of some of their pay the day after they earn it, Pianin said, instead of having to wait two weeks for a paycheck.

Boomers Parks has raised pay at the eight amusement parks it owns and is offering bonuses of up to $50 a week for some teen workers who stay through the summer, CEO Tim Murphy said. With fewer people seemingly willing to take the jobs, Murphy said, competition for workers is fierce.

At its Sahara Sam's water park in West Berlin, New Jersey, the company lowered its minimum working age to 15 from 16 to try to recruit a larger pool of candidates.

Johnathon Miller thought he would need to wait until August, when he turned 16, to start working. But when he heard about a lowered age limit at Sahara Sam’s, he applied — and got the job. He will soon be a lifeguard, watching over the lazy river for $15 an hour, a couple of bucks more an hour than Sahara Sam’s used to pay.

"I’m looking forward to working,” said Miller, who lives in Woolwich Township, New Jersey — so much so that he got a friend interested, too: "He was like, 'Whoa, they are hiring at (age) 15?'"

At Curry Up Now, the restaurant pays $2 an hour above the minimum wage, which is $15 or more an hour, depending on the Bay Area location. The chain is also offering a fund for teens to pay for classes or books, as well as free Zoom classes on how to manage money.

Kapoor concedes that young hires require restaurant training and might not stick around for long. But there are advantages to having teens on staff. They are typically inclined to persuade their friends to work or eat there, giving Curry Up Now a stream of future workers and customers. And they have updated the restaurant’s music, adding more songs from the '80s and '90s as well as tunes from India and the Middle East.

All that said, the revival of teen employment might not last. The pre-pandemic trend toward fewer young workers at restaurants and entertainment venues could reassert itself if the economy's labor shortages are eventually resolved.

Still, Harrington, director of Drexel’s labor markets center, notes that "employers have moved down the labor queue as the labor supply of adults has become more constrained."

If the economic recovery continues to reduce unemployment, and if federal policymakers continue to restrict the influx of low-skilled foreign workers, "then the chances for sustained growth in teen employment rates are good," Harrington said.

___

Pisani reported from New York. AP writer Patty Nieberg contributed to this report from Denver.