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The signs are all over town: "Now Hiring." "Help Wanted." "Needed: Smiling Faces." As the competition for workers escalates in Austin's booming economy, many businesses hire teenagers.
Last summer, more than 3 million teens under age 18 worked in full- or part-time jobs. For the majority of them and their employers, it was a rewarding experience.
At San Antonio-based H-E-B Food Stores, for example, many people in the top echelons of the company began sacking groceries as teens. Teens make up roughly 25 percent of the company's work force, and "are a special population," says spokeswoman Kate Brown. "They are energetic, enthusiastic and here because they want to be."
But while teenage employees present special opportunities, they can present special problems, too.
Each year, across the country, 70 teens are killed on the job: about one every five days. Another 210,000 working teens are injured, 70,000 seriously enough to require emergency room treatment. A study by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health states "this is of particular concern, when you take into consideration the fact that as a whole, teens work fewer hours than adult employees."
Fifty-one percent of teens work in the i retail industry including fast-food outlets and food stores; and this is where 54 percent of teen occupational injuries occur. Many injuries involve teens tiding in or driving a car or heavy equipment, or using power tools especially meat slicers.
"The workplace is very different for young people today than when their...