Tamara Chuang
Business/Technology Reporter
Quick links: Colorado Summer Job Hunt stats so far | GlobalMindED job fair | Employers rehiring post AI layoffs? | SBA funds small business centers | Take the reader poll on AI jobs
Nick Wetterling put his regular summer lawn-mowing service on hold for an opportunity of a lifetime — or at least a teenager’s lifetime. He landed an AI engineering internship at Iterate.ai, a Denver developer of private artificial intelligence software.
It’s not that Iterate was hiring for the summer, or that the company even had an internship. Wetterling, 17, just used his connections. The son of Iterate co-founder Jon Nordmark attends the same high school and Wetterling asked him to put in a good word.
Nick Wetterling, 17, during week two of his AI engineering internship at Iterate.ai. (Provided by Iterate.ai)“I sent him my LinkedIn and Jon got back to me,” said the rising senior at Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch who’s been building computers since his freshman year. “So I met him at Lost Coffee and showed him some of the projects that I’d done. I showed him this project I did in my capstone class where I did a weapons detection system using machine learning and computer vision. … A week later, he offered me the position as an AI engineering intern.”
Wetterling started last week and he’s already creating AI agents and was put on a team working on a large language model project. And even though he set the process in motion, he feels fortunate as a teenager. Some of his friends found summer jobs at the local Ace hardware store. Others are still looking. His twin sister could use a break.
“She’s applied to 32 companies and has been struggling to get an interview,” Wetterling said. “In a way, I kind of got lucky because I’m at a high school and I’m friends with the CEO’s son and I happen to have this technical background.”
That extra bit of determination is coming in handy for teenagers facing the toughest summer job market in years. Literally. This year’s summer job market for teenagers is expected to be the worst since 1948, when data was first tracked, according to employment agency Challenger Gray & Christmas. Employers just haven’t been hiring as many teenagers, with 2026 hiring expected to be slightly down from last year to 790,000 teens, which is less than half the number in 2019.
Blame this year’s slump on high gas prices and other inflation-driven costs that have kept employers waiting before they hire more summer help. Employers burned by labor shortages during the pandemic recovery had already been shifting to hiring longer-term and more experienced staff, rather than someone who is around for just a few months. Current economic factors have also made the job market for all ages pretty dismal.
But that’s really hurt the number of 16- to 19-year-old Coloradans who work or are looking for a job. This age group has seen a sharp decline, falling to a 39.1% participation rate this year, compared with staying consistently above 50% in the early 2000s. They’re either opting for summer education programs, taking it easy or just can’t find a job so they’ve given up.
It’s literally more difficult to even find a job, said Andrew Hudson, founder of Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List.
“Years ago, a teenager could walk into a grocery store, restaurant, movie theater, amusement park, retail store or golf course and find dozens of seasonal opportunities,” Hudson said. “Those jobs still exist, but they’re scattered across hundreds of employer websites, city recreation departments, workforce centers, camps and online job boards. It’s much harder for young people — and their parents — to know where to start.”
Hence, the more motivated teens are creating their own jobs. “They’re babysitting, mowing lawns, walking dogs, housesitting, washing cars, tutoring, helping neighbors with technology, and piecing together income through a variety of small gigs,” he said. “In some ways, today’s teens are becoming entrepreneurs earlier than previous generations.”
A lifeguard keeps an eye on swimmers at Lake Nighthorse, part of the Animas-La Plata Project in 2025 near Durango. It’s a perennial summer gig that doesn’t appear to be getting replaced by artificial intelligence anytime soon. (Shannon Mullane, The Colorado Sun)Carol Carter, CEO of student and professional networking organization GlobalMindED, calls it “the skill of persistence.” Her first job was babysitting at age 12, and she had a steady client list after making fliers and putting them in mailboxes in her neighborhood. But she also benefited from having older brothers who helped connect her to other people and job opportunities. She pays it back with her company, which helps Colorado students learn networking skills and provides connections to employers.
“You really have to be resourceful to go out there and develop the skill of persistence because these things aren’t necessarily easy to find,” Carter said. “You have to be willing to make these bigger connections.”
Her organization is hosting a job fair with the state labor department and Denver on Friday at the Denver Sheraton Hotel. It’s open to the public (more below).
Young workers are still out there
So far, this year’s Governor’s Summer Job Hunt program has registered 38,723 job seekers between ages 16 and 24. That’s a three-year high. The number of employers participating is well above 2024 levels, but with 1,629 employer participants, that’s about 20% lower than last year.
There are still two more months to go and last year’s numbers at this time were similar to what they are this year, said Patrick Dewitz, business and career services specialist at the state labor department’s division of employment and training.
Families float in a lazy river at Elitch Gardens in Denver in June 2024. The amusement park had more than 1,500 openings for summer employment well before Spring this year. As of June 5, there’ were only two openings on the company’s job page. (Eli Imadali / Special to The Colorado Trust)The program aims to help connect young job seekers to potential employers interested in hiring entry-level workers. Most jobs are posted online at the state’s ConnectingColorado.com. But Dewitz advises job seekers to stop by their local workforce centers, which are scattered around the state (there are nearly 50).
“The best (way) to get a job with a business that wants to work with youth is contacting their local workforce center, speaking with those youth coordinators, and having those youth connect with the businesses that they have relationships with,” he said.
Of course, if you’re reading this now, it may be too late, said Korin Metz, the young adult program supervisor at the Arapahoe/Douglas Works workforce center.
“Most of the employers that are hiring for summer employment are making those hiring decisions in March and April,” Metz said. But regular summer gigs for teen workers may still be available, and those include jobs like summer camp counselors, lifeguards, parks jobs or working at Elitch Gardens.
Kiosks to order food have replaced a job at restaurants, as employers cut costs. The trend isn’t just at large national chains, but small eateries like this kiosk at Banh Mi Station in Denver. (Tamara Chuang, The Colorado Sun)Teens also are facing a job market that has changed in the past several years, as employers invested in automation and efficiency when they couldn’t find enough workers a few years ago. There’s less need for workers at some traditional teen-friendly employers, like fast food restaurants. “If you go into a McDonald’s, there’s a kiosk taking orders. There are less people behind the counter,” Metz said.
Even if getting a job isn’t immediate, workforce centers provide other support. There’s also resume writing and interview training sessions. And getting educated about different types of jobs, and what it takes to get one, could help a young person focus on a future career.
“We are hearing a lot from employers that they’re like, hey, these kids, they don’t have the soft skills that we need them to have to be successful in the workplace,” Metz said. “We are seeing that we need to work some more on those soft skills and those career readiness things, like how do you dress appropriately, how do you request time off when you need it, how do you take feedback from an employer, why is showing up on time important, all those things that they haven’t been getting the practice with in person at school.”
Denver-based GlobalMindED supports first-generation college students by helping them expand their professional network and connecting them with employers, like this job fair at the organization’s annual conference in 2024. (Handout)> Stop by the job fair. The GlobalMindED Industry Marketplace job fair is part of the organization’s annual conference, which features speakers from all industries. The industry job fair features employers with apprenticeships, internships and job openings and is open to the public on Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the Denver Sheraton Hotel. No registration is needed for the free job fair. Just bring a resume or share your LinkedIn profile. To attend the full conference, there is a fee but scholarships are available through Abby Keleher at abby.keleher@globalminded.org. >> Details
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Other working bits
➔ Denver is the second top market to rehire workers after AI job cuts. According to a new survey from business consultancy Robert Half, one in three managers who eliminated positions after implementing artificial intelligence technology added those positions back. Regionally, Denver had the second highest rate out of 12 markets that did so. “A surprising 41% (in Denver) said yes (behind Dallas at 44%) and well above the national average (32%),” according to a Robert Half spokesperson.
Robert Half relies on a third-party firm to conduct the survey and declined to share which local companies participated. But, said Maggie Zeeb, the company’s regional director, 90% of Denver organizations are using AI, compared with the national average of 88%, and 51% predict it will increase headcount in the next two years. That’s lower than the 54% national average.
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Take the poll >> cosun.co/WWAIjobs➔ Small Business Development Centers finally gets federal funds. For months, it was touch and go on whether Colorado’s Small Business Development Centers would get $2.25 million in federal funding to operate their programs for local small businesses. Even the state’s congressional contingent demanded the Small Business Administration address the issue in March.
SBA finally released $1,809,596 for Colorado’s small business centers, according to the Governor’s office. What happened to the remaining funds? The difference has to do with how the payments are staggered, said Sophie Ulin, a spokesperson for Sen. Michael Bennet.
“We received our notice of award for 75% of our total award because that is what (Office of Management and Budget) has released to the SBA so far. We actually will receive $2.4M in 2026 because of a congressional increase,” Ulin said in an email.
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