Young people looking for summer jobs this year are set to face some of the
worst labor market conditions in a while. There's a lot of stickiness in the labor market, so during a downturn firms don't necessarily cut back as much as they would if real life were a frictionless plane (instead, you just like nominal wages stay flat as real wages decline). But many slightly unorthodox corners of the labor market -- the summer jobs segment among them -- don't have these kind of features and it's easy enough to just avoid hiring as many part time temporary workers as you did the year before.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/05/summer-jobs/45060/