The children had read their stories, finished their drawings and were getting antsy, squirming in their seats inside the small community center and waiting for the words they longed to hear.

"OK, guys," Alexis Rodriguez called out to the class. "Time for recess."

It's Rodriguez's second week at her first job. The 17-year-old is a recreational aide and tutor for local nonprofit agency Mercy Housing at its Kennedy Estates complex in south Sacramento.

Alexis' summer job is a paid internship through a program run by Sacramento community services group Asian Resources Inc.

The summer intern program is one local effort helping teens enter the work world and cut into a teen jobless rate that in California stands at more than 34 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The jobless rate factors the percentage of job-ready teens who are looking for work but unable to find it.

Only Georgia, at 36.3 percent, and the District of Columbia, where nearly half of teenagers are unemployed, had higher rates last year.

"For a lot of students, this is their first job – they're learning job skills, résumé skills, what to wear," said Elizabeth Gonzales, an employment services specialist at Asian Resources. "These students are here to grow."

Alexis hopes to become a pediatrician someday and considers working with children the first step.

"I watch over the kids, make sure they're safe and paying attention," she said as she collected the children's binders. "It's a start."

Getting that start has proved difficult – historically so – for many teens, said Amar Mann, a San Francisco-based regional economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The national jobless rate for teens the past three Junes was the highest on record, even as the percentage of teens in the labor force has steadily shrunk. Today, 40 percent of teens are in the labor force compared to 58 percent 10 years ago.

Not only are those teenagers competing with older workers for scarce jobs in a tough economy, they're competing more fiercely with each other, Mann said.

"There are a lot of kids in the 16-to-20 cohort. They're competing with each other for colleges and for summer work. It's an uphill battle. They're competing harder than any teens since the Depression," Mann said. "For teens in California, it's an even tougher road to employment."

Vince Balkcom can relate. The 19-year-old struggled to find work in the Bay Area before his family moved to Sacramento. He's interning this summer at Sacramento City Hall through Asian Resources.

"It's not only hard because you've got a full-grown adult looking for the same job – it's hard in general," Balkcom said. "There are not a lot of jobs available for youth."

Teens have made some inroads this summer.

John A. Challenger of Chicago outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said teen jobs nationally rose sharply in June compared to June 2010, led by hiring in such traditional summer sectors as retail, leisure and hospitality.

And some teens are creating their own jobs.

The evidence is anecdotal, but BLS economist Mann said more teens are trying their hands at entrepreneurship, getting together with friends to put business ideas together.

"They're doing stuff through social media, creating small side businesses," he said.

The go-to for teens and employers alike, though, continues to be internships, even as more young people fight for the summer spots.

"Internships have also become competitive, and the paid ones are especially treasured and valued," Mann said.

For teens, it's a way to gain and build job skills and immerse themselves in the work world while earning cash and experience. For employers, internships serve as an early recruiting tool, a way to reach out to their communities and as a barometer of future talent, Challenger said.

And in tight financial times, it's a way to keep programs alive.

"They've provided interns for us each summer. It allows us to have a summer program. It's awesome for us," said Erik Krengel, a Mercy Housing community coordinator who oversees the summer youth recreation program at Kennedy Estates and the interns from Asian Resources.

Asian Resources has worked with the nonprofit the past five years, he said.

"It's very hard for teens right now. It's more and more difficult for them to find entry-level jobs," Krengel said. "It's so important for them to have these kinds of experiences."

The Challenger study showed improving conditions for teen job seekers nationwide, but with Sacramento's economy in the doldrums, things are still tough locally, said Terri Carpenter of the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency.

"The playing field is not much better than last year," Carpenter said. "There are so many other factors in the market that are affecting teen employment."

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