Paying the price

Economy | Teen unemployment is on the rise, and a minimum wage hike may be part of the reason | Alisa Harris

Associated Press/Photo by Gary Kazanjian

Esther Smith can't even tell you everywhere she's dropped her resumé. She's posted it on nannying websites, sent it to friends of friends, given it to retail stores, and called to follow up on every job. "I don't even know where my resumé is now," she said. "It's floating around everywhere in cyberspace."

Before she came to New York City, Smith polished her resumé—a sports referee, a cashier at a smoothie place, and four years of experience as a CPR-certified nanny. She contacted the New York friends of people she already knew in Orlando, Fla., and lined up an interview with an Upper East Side mom two days before she arrived. It was $15 an hour to nanny three girls—perfect, but it went to an older, more experienced woman. Anthropologie is hiring 100 new part-time sales associates but hasn't called her back after an interview. Her next interview is at J. Crew.