---

Mary Beth Wallace likes her job.

A clerk at Briggs Nursery in North Attleboro, the Bishop Feehan High School graduate gets to spend her day surrounded by roses, lillies, and pottery. The people are friendly, the hours are great and it's an easy commute.

The job search wasn't too hard, either.

"My mom always came in to buy trees and stuff, and I live right down the street, so it just seemed like a good place to work," said Wallace, 18. "At first, I came in, like, June and they didn't need anybody. So then when people left for school they kind of called me up and said, 'We have a job now.'"

But it isn't always so easy for job-hunting teenagers. Teen employment this year is at a record low, the government reports. The number of 16- to 19-year-olds employed each July has hovered at about 50 percent the the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the numbers in 1948.

But the numbers began trending downward in 1998, fell below 50 percent in 2002 and has sunk below 45 percent the past four summers.

But it's not just a summertime problem.

In May, teen employment was at a six-decade low of 34.6 percent after an adjustment for seasonal fluctuations.

And the prognosis is not good.

In April, Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, headed by economics professor Andrew Sum, forecast that just 36.5 percent of teens will have jobs this summer, down from 37.4 percent last year and 45.3 percent in 2000.

Wallace, who will be a freshman at Providence College in September, understands the trend.

"I have some friends who don't even want a job. You get almost like a stereotype from the place that you work, and lots of kids don't want that," she said. "And a lot of places don't even want teenagers to work there because they feel we have negative attitudes."

She also suggested more teens do not have jobs now because they are not as motivated as years gone by.

Wallace's co-worker, Siobahn McLernon, agrees. "Teens are getting lazier," said McLernon, a 16-year-old going into her junior year at Grace Baptist Christian Academy. "Teens don't want to work. They want money, but they don't want to work."

Sum says a number of factors are in play.

Immigrants are taking many jobs that would normally go to youths.

Competition from college-age workers is up, as many fail to find jobs that match their education. Employers often choose the more-educated applicants over less-educated ones.

Federal funding for summer jobs has been cut since 2000.

Christine LaChance, executive director of the Attleboro Area School to Career Partnership, also says there is no single reason for the downward trend.

And one of them is that teens looking for work are pickier than ever before.

"If I hear one more time, 'I don't want to work with fast food'...," she said with a hint of frustration. "When I grew up we always knew there were steps you take. But not everyone's willing to do that.

"This has been one of the most challenging years, but we have placed many teens with positions."

LaChance also said that mothers returning to the workplace and retirees looking to supplement their income have made it even harder for a teen to land a job.

The Partnership - which includes Attleboro, North Attleboro, Norton and Foxboro - is doing its best to help fix the problem.

It held job-a-thon on April 26 at Gillette Stadium in which volunteers made calls for four hours trying to place teens with jobs. Volunteers included Jack Lank, president of the Attleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, and Attleboro Police Chief Richard Pierce.

By the end of the day, teens had been placed with 50 jobs, a number that has grown to 68 since then.

"This has probably been the hardest year for teen employment, but there are positions out there," LaChance said.