AVS TOUGHEN UP WITH BEAUCHEMIN, COMEAU
»1B
Voice of the Rocky Mountain Empire
scattered storms E83° F61° »14A B © the denver post B $1.50 price may vary outside metro denver
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2015
Cool summer
Employment for teens this season continues decline of recent decades
as some instead focus on unpaid internships and community service
6
VA’S S LOA N G IB S O N :
Budget
hike
still an
enigma
The deputy secretary
promises the Aurora
hospital will be completed,
without some features.
By David Olinger
The Denver Post
Cambria Redmond, 18, is working this summer as a lifeguard at the Thunder Bay tsunami wave pool at Hyland Hills Water World
in Federal Heights. She is trying to earn money for college tuition. Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Teen employment falls
By Tierra Smith The Denver Post
The number of teenagers working a
summer job has been in decline since
the 1990s. The percentage of U.S.
teens age 16 to 19 with a summer job:
65%
54.8%
55%
45%
33.4%
35%
25%
’95
’00
’05
’10
’14
Note: Numbers for the peak work month
of July
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Pew Research Center
The Denver Post
T
he traditional summer job is undergoing a transformation, and
teenagers like Emma Menchaca
are part of it.
Menchaca, 14, of Denver works
for GreenLeaf, a nonprofit organization that
engages youth in agriculture and farming. She
earns minimum wage working 20 hours a week
in the summer at Sustainability Park in Denver,
growing, selecting and selling fruits and vegetables to the public.
She didn’t set out looking for employment.
“I originally came here for volunteer hours
for school and something I can put on my college résumé,” she said.
It’s not unusual for students to put other concerns, like community service, ahead of employment. A report released last week by the
Pew Research Center points to a steady decline
nationwide in what used to be a rite of passage
for many teens — the summer job.
Last year, the summer employment rate was
20 percent for 16- and 17-year-olds, less than
half the level from 2000, according to the Pew
report. For 18- and 19-year-olds, the summer
employment rate was 43.9 percent, well below
the 62.6 average rate in 2000.
“There are a lot of competing activities for
teenagers’ time,” said Alexandra Hall, chief
TEENS » 8A
Business: Inflation-beating wage hikes aren’t in the cards for Colorado workers. »9A
Feds probe airlines for possible collusion
Antitrust investigators want to know if
firms limit the number of available seats
in order to keep airfares artificially high.
By David Koenig, Scott Mayerowitz
and Eric Tucker The Associated Press
washington» The U.S. government is investigating possible collusion among major airlines to limit available seats, which keeps airfares high, according
to a document obtained by The Associated Press.
The civil antitrust investigation by the Justice De-
partment appears to focus on whether airlines illegally signaled to each other how quickly they would
add new flights, routes and extra seats.
A letter received Tuesday by major U.S. carriers
demands copies of all communications the airlines
had with each other, Wall Street analysts and major
shareholders about their plans for passenger-carrying capacity, or “the undesirability of your company
or any other airline increasing capacity.”
The Justice Department asked each airline for its
passenger-carrying capacity both by region, and
overall, since January 2010.
AIRLINES » 11A
A top Department of Veterans
Affairs official said Wednesday
that his agency may never explain
precisely how a hospital project in
Aurora with a $604 million construction budget skyrocketed to
$1.73 billion in barely two years.
Members of Congress, including Democratic Sens. Michael
Bennet of Colorado and Richard
Blumenthal of Connecticut, have
asked for a detailed account of the
price increase, saying those numbers must exist.
But during a news conference at
the construction site, VA Deputy
Secretary Sloan Gibson said not to
expect a line-item description of
the $1.1 billion difference.
“You’re not going to find a dollar-by-dollar account,” he said.
Gibson said the best explanation of the cost overruns can be
found in the Civilian Board of
Contract Appeals court decision
in December 2014 that sustained
VA » 8A
Deputy Secretary of Veterans
Affairs Sloan Gibson visits the
Aurora construction site of the
VA hospital on Wednesday.
AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post
DENVER & THE WEST
HANCOCK EXPANDS STAFF SHAKE-UP
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s second-term changes
continue with new human services and communications
chiefs. »4A
NATION & WORLD
Diplomatic turn. As the U.S. and Cuba agree to reopen
embassies in each other’s capitals, both countries are still
struggling with deep divisions and mistrust. »12A
IN S I D E Business » 9-11A | Comics » 5-6C | Lottery » 2A | Markets » 10A | Movies » 4C | Obituaries » 13A
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