NEW YORK — The souring job market and rising costs of the usual teenage indulgences — a slice of pizza, a drive to the mall, the hottest new jeans — are causing teens to do something they rarely do: be thrifty.
It’s a far cry from the freewheeling spending of recent years, when teens splurged on $100 Coach wristlet handbags, $60 Juicy Couture T-shirts and $80 skinny jeans from Abercrombie & Fitch.
Now, jobs for teens are less plentiful, and parents who supply the allowances are feeling the economic pinch themselves.
The stalwart retailers of teen apparel, such as Abercrombie and American Eagle Outfitters, are reporting sluggish sales, defying the belief that teen spending is recession-proof.
It’s even becoming cool to be frugal.
Last week, , the teen offshoot of Elle magazine, launched a new video fixture called Self-Made Girl on how to make clothes and accessories. The first video offers tips on how to create a prom clutch.
“It’s a little tacky in the economic unrest to tote a big logo bag,” said Holly Siegel, the site’s senior editor.
The job market for teens isn’t what it used to be, either: Nathan Reeser, a Cincinnati 15-year- old, lost his job making pizza four months ago and has had to cut back on spending. He’s shopping more at Target and less at Abercrombie & Fitch’s Hollister stores.
“Now, I just get money from my parents, but they don’t have as much because of taxes and everything else,” he said.
Teen hiring has slumped by 5 percent since March 2007, with many mom-and-pop stores, which typically hire younger workers, laying off employees.
Hiring in the overall job market fell by just 0.1 percent during the same period.
That’s still not as bad as the 13 percent drop in teen hiring in the early 1990s. That means that if the larger job market mirrors the last teen hiring slump, “we’re not out of the woods,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.
