The teens hardest hit by the tough labor market also happen to be the least fortunate ones: those with less education, from poorer households, or from minority backgrounds. Teens whose parents earned more than $40,000 a year boasted employment rates of 26 to 28 percent, while teens whose parents made less than that threshold, were employed at rates of less than 20 percent.

These signs foreshadow potentially another summer in which too many teenagers are unable to find work, years after the recession officially ended. “Kids are less likely to work now, and the range of industries they work in is smaller–like retail, trade, or fast food. That massively reduces the number of kids on the payrolls,” says Sum, who also directs the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. It does not help that teenagers now increasingly compete against adults for minimum-wage positions.

These data points about low teen employment spell terrible things for the long-term health of the American economy.