Texas students pivot to gig platforms amid historically brutal summer job market

DALLAS - There is an economic squeeze happening, everything costs more. 

For the jobs that are out there, increase competition. In the industry where summer jobs are normally big, people aren't spending as much and employers are hiring less. 

Summer job market for teens

What we know:

For teens and young adults hoping to find work, it has been anything but a walk in the park.

"It was the most frustrating thing I’ve had to deal with applying to hundreds if not thousands of applications for internships or just finding a respectable salary. It was just terrible," said Lukas Lindestaf, experiencing a hard time trying to find a job.

Labor analyst, Parag Amin, believes it starts with inflation.

"It is the toughest labor market for teens and summer jobs since 1948," said Amin. "As a result of that, adults staying in the workplace longer adults taking jobs that traditionally many teens would perform, including lower-paying jobs like working in retail or working in fast food."

Inflation, automation changing entry-level jobs

Dig deeper:

Not just older workers taking young people's jobs, Tom Kim of U.T. Dallas School of Business, says all of these factors equals a changing job market. 

"I think there's a multitude of things going on…," Kim started off. "I think automation has eliminated some of those entry-level positions that normally teens would have."

A job market these three young men found to be unkind. 

"Trying to find a job, or an internship, like, I'm doing mechanical engineering right now and even then the job market is just very tough for me," said Yannick Felli. 

"I reached out to my connections trying to get a job. Nothing worked, and so I found this service and, honestly, I really believe in it. It feels great doing it," said Orion Ramirez.

Finding alternative work

Big picture view:

Sparehandstudents.com is a platform where students who want to work are matched with people who have work that needs to be done. Texas A&M graduate, Zach Miller started the website while he was a student.

"So, this is doing things like moving boxes, mowing their lawn, cleaning their home, assembling furniture, just one-off things like that," said Miller. "As a student, you can earn up to $25 to $30 per hour on average, which is a great way to earn some extra money."

It's an alternative that, for these guys, means working and getting paid.

"It's really the perfect tool to set you up beautifully for work anytime you have a free schedule or anything," said Ramirez. 

Finding work at times, can still be discouraging for some. 

"I still am a little bit, but you know, there's hope. I feel like we kind of ran into the right solutions. We've been able to find some work around here and there, but i know my peers are struggling too," said Felli.

What you can do:

For some, sparehandstudents.com may be the answer, as lots of factors are forcing employers to scale back this summer.