Boston Teens Face Stiff Competition For Summer Jobs

Jobs are hard to come by in the current economy. Unemployment climbed to 8 percent in April, up from 7.7 percent in March. It's the highest level since 1993, and for young people between 14 and 21 years-old the situation is even tougher. They're competing with college graduates and older workers who are either staying on the job or going back to work.

In March, Gov. Patrick announced he would commit more than $30 million over two years in state and federal funding to create 10,000 summer positions for Massachusetts youth.

To find out how the situation is panning out for the summer, we visited Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD), a social service organization in Boston with a "Summer Works" program that provides jobs, education and mentoring to at-risk youth. We spoke with 19-year-old Kenisha Durr from Dorchester, 19-year-old Joseph Carter from Dorchester and 17-year-old Irving Wu from the South End and asked them what it's been like trying to find a job in this economy.