Many young adults and teenagers are missing the experience of working as a lifeguard, dishing out fast food or mowing lawns this summer. It’s a troubling trend decades in the making. In entry-level jobs, teenagers learn valuable life skills, like trying your best even when you’re overwhelmed by the pressure of the job. But statistics show many young adults are entering the job market later and later, which will hurt them, and the larger economy, in the long run.

According to statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the headline unemployment rate for the nation hovers around 6.1%. But unemployment for teens ages 16 to 19 is over three times that amount, clocking in at 21% for June, an increase of 0.8% from May. Workers in their early 20s face dire numbers as well, experiencing a 10.5% unemployment rate.

Unemployment numbers for young workers are tricky to calculate, with many students opting to focus only on their studies in high school and college. But according to Andrew Sum with the Brookings Institution, the number of teens employed in the last decade has plummeted. In 2000, 45% of teens held a job. In 2011, only 26% of teens were employed – some of the most dismal teen employment numbers since the BLS started tracking the stat after World War II.

A study released by Brookings last March found that the dismal job market hurt the employment prospects of youth as they move up through life. “Education and work experience were critical factors associated with better employment outcomes,” the study said. “Teens and young adults with work experience in the previous year were more likely to be employed, lending support to the idea that employment is path-dependent among young people, with recent employment history acting as a strong predictor of current employment. Among young adults, post-secondary education was also strongly associated with employment.”

Common sense dictates the youngest workers should be in school because an education will allow them to enter and keep better paying jobs. There is a reason why the unemployment rate among workers who never completed high school is much higher than the rates experienced by people with a college degree. But as the Brookings study found, working 15-20 hours a week doesn’t hurt a student’s learning ability. Furthermore, the unemployment numbers have risen faster than the rise of education numbers.

While the youngest potential workers opt to stay home and play video games, they loose valuable lessons in responsibility, the Brookings report says. It continues, “[R]educed work experience among high school and college students is worrisome not because it automatically indicates current economic hardship, but because it suggests a long-term negative effect on employment and earnings.”

The Left’s push to raise the minimum wage isn’t helping the next generation acclimate into the workforce. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “You don’t need a Nobel Prize in economics to understand why minimum wage hikes hurt a teen’s chance at landing a summer job.” Many of these jobs, such as restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stories, etc., operate with narrow profit margins. In a place like Seattle – with its $15-an-hour-wage – the only way to keep costs down is to cut hours and employees. Who will the manager cut first: the single mother supporting two kids, or the 17-year-old earning money for college?

Economist Thomas Sowell writes, “Pricing young people out of work deprives them not only of income but also of work experience, which can be even more valuable. Pricing young people out of legal work, when illegal work is always available, is just asking for trouble. So is having large numbers of idle young males hanging out together on the streets.”

Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore suggests a compromise to fix the problem: Simply institute a lower minimum wage for student workers. “Wouldn’t it be better for kids to have a job that pays $5 or $6 an hour than no job at all?” he asks. “But whatever that rate is, let’s help every young American who wants a job to get one by setting a federal teen minimum wage of $5 an hour. Call it a training wage.”

These days, many students may be playing the job-application game, or simply looking forward to another long, hot summer filled with pools, movies and amusement parks. However, there is a third way. Carter Kostler, now 15, designed a water bottle that could infuse fruit and veggie flavors into the water – a healthy alternative to sports drinks and soda. Stores like Whole Foods now distribute his Define Bottle. Instead of waiting for the job market to improve, teens like Carter are making their own way, starting their own business, inventing something, or simply mowing lawns in their neighborhood. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit that built America.