Fewer jobs for teens, fewer parents willing to 'allow' their kids to take a part-time job rather than participate in that additional extracurricular to give them a "leg up" in college admissions, school that's too expensive to afford on a part time income, all probably creates a feedback loop here. Nobody wants their kid working a crap job for life, so they do everything they can to keep them from that life, including any opportunity to even have a taste of it.