Internships, traditionally seen as a rite of passage for high school and college graduates looking to get an entry in their field, are now being sought after by even people in their 50s who are trying to retrain themselves for new jobs and new careers.

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/06/2011 -- The lingering high unemployment rate has reduced even older, experienced people without jobs to work as unpaid interns.

Internships, traditionally seen as a rite of passage for high school and college graduates looking to get an entry in their field, are now being sought after by even people in their 50s who are trying to retrain themselves for new jobs and new careers.

The main reason given by this new group of interns is that they want to have something on their resume. The job advice sites keep emphasizing the importance of keeping busy even when a person is unemployed. The two most common paths are either volunteering or doing an internship.

There are no exact figures on older interns but recruiters and careeradvisors have seen an increase in the number of older clients who want and are ready to do unpaid internships. With the unemployment rate stuck at around 9 percent and the underemployment rate at around 16 percent, people are more ready to take chances with unpaid internships in the hopes of learning new skills.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers says that 60 percent of the internships lead to jobs. But only around 52 percent of internships are paid. This trend of older interns is seen by some as being harmful to younger workers. They say that these older interns are pushing younger workers out of entry-level jobs. The unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds is 15 percent, while for 16 to 19 year olds it is 24 percent.

But there are paid internships available. InternshipCrossing, a job aggregator site for internships, has around 19,000 positions listed, out of which around 3,000 are paid positions.

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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urged private businesses to hire young workers, aged 16 to 24, this summer. The Labor department has started a "Summer Jobs USA. Make a Commitment" campaign as a oluntary effort to get the private sector to hire young people.

Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/15/2011 -- The Department of Labor is trying to create jobs for young people this summer by working with the private sector to create around 100,000 summer jobs.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis urged private businesses to hire young workers, aged 16 to 24, this summer. The Labor department has started a "Summer Jobs USA -- Make a Commitment" campaign as a voluntary effort to get the private sector to hire young people.

The recession has hit this age group hard, with 19.1 percent of them unemployed in July 2010. The hard employment scenario is expected to continue for this demographic group this summer as well. The main reason is the lack of the economic stimulus money that was made available to local and state governments last summer. The stimulus funds allowed cities and counties to create youth-oriented jobs such as lifeguards and in recreation.

The main companies who have so far pledged support are Wells Fargo & Co., UPS, Qwest Communications, General Dynamics, Research in Motion and Toyota North America. Wells Fargo has said that the bank usually hires for summer and this time, it is hiring around 1,000 college and MBA students.

InternshipCrossing, a job aggregator website focusing only on internships has so far been able to locate around 25,000 internships. The internships include jobs in marketing and sales, public relations, as well as in healthcare and technical fields.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm