Earlier this year, Brittany Gor­don walked into fast-food restaurants and grocery stores, offering her bubbly personality and baby - sitting experience to get jobs being chased by people twice her age with résumés.

• Photos

Sara Caldwell/Staff

Rebecca Meek, 17, prepares a customer's order at Maurice's BBQ in North Augusta.

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At 17 , she was looking for her first real job to earn spending money and gain a little responsibility.

"Plus, my mom kind of made me," she said.

The Strom Thur­mond High School student applied everywhere but had little luck. She tried Chick-fil-A, Sonic, Checkers, Food Lion and Bi-Lo, filling out applications that seemed to disappear into a deep, black hole.

"A lot of places I never got responses from, or they said I was too young," Brittany said. "When they asked for experience, I was like -- baby - sitting? I mean, when you baby - sit every day over the summer, you have talent."

In an economy where minimum-wage jobs have become competitive even for adults with job experience, teenagers are struggling to find work. As of May, Georgia and South Carolina were in the top 11 states with the highest unemployment rate for teenagers ages 16 to 19.

Georgia is tied with California for first with a 34.6 percent teen unemployment rate, while South Carolina ranks 11th at 28.5 percent, according to an analysis of the most recent Census Bureau data by the Employment Policies Institute in Washington.

"The idea of more competition for fewer jobs sums it up," said Michael Saltsman, a research fellow at the institute. "You can point to the recession, and clearly that's a big driver. ... One thing that's going on is a lot of the jobs that the teens used to fill aren't there anymore."
Saltsman said the rise in minimum wage has made employers hire more selectively, which could put teens at a disadvantage.

The change in minimum wage, which is now $7.25 federally, has also made some businesses eliminate certain jobs that teen s used to dominate, such as busing tables and bagging groceries, Saltsman said.

However, as Brittany found out in March, there is hope.

She was in class when she got a voice mail from Chris Bennett, the manager of Maurice's BBQ in North Augusta.

Finally, she had landed an interview.

Gordon went in the hall to call her mother, who agreed to sign her out of school so her daughter could rush over to make a good impression.
Bennett sat Brittany down at a table in the restaurant with a red-and-white checkered tablecloth and asked about her work ethic, availability and ability to work with customers.

"(Work experience) is a benefit, but not a requirement," Ben­nett said of choosing between teen and adult candidates. "If they seem pleasant and can deal with customers, that's important."

After about 20 minutes, he offered Brittany a job on the spot. She started the next day pulling meat off pig bones, frying hush puppies and working the register.

"It's taught me if you want money, you actually have to work for it," she said.

She beat the roughly five teen s who walk into Maurice's BBQ each week begging for work. Of all the applicants he sees, Ben­nett said about 80 percent are unemployed teens.

For William Beasley, 17, an incoming junior at Academy of Richmond County , the job search wasn't any easier.

In January, he applied at McDonald's, GameStop in Augusta Mall and Dick's Sporting Goods but got nothing more than a "thank you" when he handed over his application.

He watched his classmates struggle to find jobs and worried about his lack of work experience when filling out applications.

But William has leadership. He makes good grades and is a drill team commander in his school's Junior ROTC program. Plus, he isn't the nervous type.

So when he walked into Arby's on Knox Avenue in North Augusta, William told the manager he was ready to work and willing to take night shifts.

He was hired in January and is now assigned to the front counter and the drive-through, because he is not old enough to work the meat slicer.

Knowing what the rest of the country is going through, he said he didn't take his rejections personally.

"I know it's hard for everyone to get jobs," he said. "I was just hoping I'd get lucky with this, and I did. My friends have been looking for jobs, but no luck. I'm lucky to have gotten this."

Reach Tracey McManus at (706) 823-3424 or tracey.mcmanus@augustachronicle.com.