'Youth depression' hard on US retailers

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Jon Koehling has a job delivering pizzas in a Dallas suburb and that sets this 21-year-old apart from many of his American peers. "I'm grateful I have a job I don't hate. I did about 15 to 20 applications and it took me three months to get this job," he said as he sat in the restaurant between deliveries.

Koehling is fortunate. People under 30 have been pounded by this recession and its job losses and the implications for some retailers are proving to be dire this holiday season.

Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Northeastern University in Boston, reckons about 50 percent of the 7.7 million jobs lost over the past two years have been absorbed by those under 30.

Within that group, about 62 percent of these job losses have been incurred by young men. Those aged 16 to 19 have seen a 23 percent decline in jobs -- by far the sharpest decline of any age category. In October to November 2007, almost 5.9 million people in this group were employed either full or part time, according to Sum. By October of this year only 4.5 million were.

This may explain why mall-based retailers catering to male and female teens such as Pacific Sunwear of California Inc, American Eagle Outfitters Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch Co are resorting to steep promotions.

Pacific Sunwear shares have shed 50 percent since a 2009 high in October. American Eagle shares are down 15 percent in the same period, Zumiez Inc has fallen 28 percent since a September high and Abercrombie is down 16 percent from a 2009 high in November.

The labor situation has been especially hard for the working class and Sum estimates the recession has taken 17 percent of America's blue-collar jobs over the past two years.

"It is the most uneven recession ever. It's all young and working class for the most part ... In the labor and youth markets, I would call it a Great Depression," Sum told Reuters.