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CAROL LOLLIS

Lindsay Bierwert, 18, checks chemical levels in the Northampton Swim Club Pool while on duty for her summer job Friday morning.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Tom Galica, 20, of Westhampton, considers himself one of the lucky ones. Many young people on the hunt for summer jobs are finding prospects slim.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Tom Galica, 20, of Westhampton, cuts grass Thursday at the Bridge Street Cemetery as part of summer employment with the Northampton Department of Public Works.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Lindsay Bierwert, 18, takes her station as lifeguard at the Northampton Swim Club Pool Friday. This is her third summer on the job. She heads to collge in the fall.

NORTHAMPTON - Lindsay Bierwert is one of the lucky ones: she had her summer job lined up months ago.

Bierwert, an 18-year-old Northampton woman, is a lifeguard at the Northampton Swim Club.

A recent high school graduate with plans to attend Hartwick College in upstate New York this fall, Bierwert has been working at the pool for the past two summers. It was easy for her to get the job. Her father manages the pool.

Bierwert is among a group of seasonal employees who have returned to past summer jobs - a cohort that appears to be larger this year than in the past- squeezing new applicants out of the market.

"The job search was pretty easy for me," Bierwert joked. "A few of my friends look seasonally for jobs in the downtown stores, they mostly want to work outside, but it's not that easy, I don't think, to find a job in the summer."

With high unemployment and a larger percentage of people taking advantage of established summer job contacts, the range of available summer jobs has shrunk since last year. On a national-scale, there are 2.3 million fewer people ages 16-19 who were working in May compared to May of 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Unemployment among 16-19 year old people was at 26.4 percent in May, the most recent information available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationwide the unemployment rate is 9.7 percent.

To put it another way, about 26.2 percent of people ages 16-19, or 4.4 million teens, were employed in May- which is 38 percent fewer 16-19-year-olds who had jobs 10 years ago. There were 6.7 million people ages 16-19 employed in May of 2001.

The job picture could, however, change for the better. The Massachusetts economy has been showing steady signs of improvement. A mid-summer hiring bump is possible.

"Employers don't want to hire someone they may have to fire even if it's a seasonal person. They're being as cautious and conservative as they can be," said Robert A. Nakosteen, a University of Massachusetts economics professor. "They'll probably be conservative at first, but then if the crowds pick up, if people are opening their wallets, you may see some sort of second wave hiring."

Whether a second wave of hiring takes place is largely dependent on how stable the economy is. When people feel confident about the economy, they are more willing to spend discretionary dollars in the traditional summer time business sectors of leisure, entertainment, restaurants, and hospitality, Nakosteen said.

Meanwhile, the dearth of summer jobs has the largest effect on young people, ages 16-24, who look for work in between school.

"It's not improved. It might have gotten worse," said Jim Parcells, director of planning and youth programs for the employment board. "It has impacted young people, this recession, worse than most age cohorts."

Options for people looking to enter the summer work force were further reduced this year when funding for the state summer youth works program disappeared.

Myriad reasons for tougher market

Last year an infusion of about $800,000 helped 329 local young people gain summer employment. By this year there is no federal stimulus money, which means the program will provide 80 percent fewer local work opportunities than last year. Compared to last year's 329 jobs, this time around there are only 60 jobs available. And they mostly went to people who were already enrolled in programs run by the Franklin Hampshire Career Center, which organizes the summer youth work program.

In Northampton this summer season, after workers returning for the summer took their jobs , there were few open positions left for the 45 summer jobs in the public works and park and recreation departments.

"There was a lot of returning staff, a larger percentage than usual and a lot of new applications," said Susan Stone of the city's human resource department. "So the number of jobs available was down."

Tom Galica, a 20-year-old Westhampton man, beat out other applicants for a summer job with the DPW. This will be Galica's third year maintaining public fountains, mowing ballparks, and trimming bushes for the city. He first heard about the job because his parents have friends in the DPW.

"For me it was easy," said Galica, "but a lot of my friends have to look for work."

But for some, summer jobs have been hard to find. While summer jobs may be hard to find now, the situation could change in a month or two. The Massachusetts economy has been showing steady signs of recovery since the winter.

"There is a resurgence going on even if it is a mild resurgence," Nakosteen said. "But to what extent do (employers) have to gear up for the crowds?"

What makes a recovery

Factors that could influence a mid-summer hiring bump are business confidence, a lower unemployment rate, consumer spending, and Europe's banking quagmire, Nakosteen said. Europe is the variable most able to put a damper on Baystate jobs.

The continent across the pond is a major client for Massachusetts manufactured goods: mostly high-tech products that include precision tools, mechanical and testing equipment, Nakosteen said.

But if Europe stops buying, Massachusetts' recovery could stall. Debt problems and steep government spending cuts in countries like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Hungary may slow Europe's economy so much that the economic slump spreads around the globe.

"At this point we're in the shadow, or the recovery is in the shadow of what happens to the nation and globally, especially in Europe," Nakosteen said. "That sovereign debt crisis can be translated into the state by lowering our exports."

Meanwhile, May was the fourth month in a row Massachusetts has added jobs, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The private sector added 4,700 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sectors, but there were 500 job losses in arts, entertainment, and recreation. Accommodation and food services gained 5,200 jobs that month.

But compared to last May leisure and hospitality jobs are still down by 5,200 positions, or 1.7 percent.

"Hospitality, downtown shopping, these are the areas where summer hires are made," said Alan Swider operations manager at the Northampton Career Center. "But when times are bad, these people still need to make some summer hires."

Another positive sign that there may be a mid-summer hiring surge is a jump in business confidence among Massachusetts entrepreneurs. In May, business confidence rose a tick above 50- which is neutral on the 100-point scale- for the first time since April 2008, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index, a measure AIM has been tracking since July 1991.

"There's no question that confidence and expectations are turning in the right direction in the state," Nakosteen said. "I don't want to exaggerate the picture, we're still in some shadows here, but there is a lot of reason for optimism."