If you’re in your late teens or early 20s, still living at home, comfortably back in school at the moment and don’t already have one, now would be a good time to start planning your job search. Note: I said job search, not career path. There’s plenty of time for the latter.

Forces beyond your control are making it much more difficult for you to find a job, which is a pity because prior experience is what employers value most.

By constantly calling for higher and higher minimum wages, politicians — in spite of having all the evidence of their negative effects in front of them — are forcing the small business owners who are most likely to hire you to cut back on job opportunities.

You see, the minimum wage was meant for you. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency that keeps track of minimum wage workers, reports, “Minimum wage workers tend to be young. Although workers under age 25 represented only about one-fifth of hourly paid workers, they made up nearly half of those paid the federal minimum wage or less.”

But to hear politicians tell it, increases in minimum wages are needed to pull middle-aged men and women out of poverty. Nonsense. The bulk of the gains will go to members of families with above-median incomes.
A higher minimum wage only makes it harder for you to qualify for that first job.

There’s not much you can do about the political rhetoric out of your control. But there’s plenty you can do to land a job. William Dunkelberg, chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business, advises losing the attitude, ditching the nose ring and cleaning yourself up as a good start. “Does it take a high school or college degree to know you should be clean?”

Dunkelberg’s peppery opinion was extrapolated from an NFIB report on job vacancies awhile back, the results from which you should pay attention. Asked to name the biggest problems small business owners faced in filling job vacancies …

61 percent listed a lack of job-specific or occupational skills as a typical or occasional problem.

54 percent cited the poor attitude of applicants as a typical or occasional problem.

52 percent said poor job or work history was a typical or occasional problem.

51 percent said lack of social or people skills as a typical or occasional problem.

43 percent called inappropriate appearance as a typical or occasional problem.

43 percent commented on inflated wage or benefit expectations as a typical or occasional problem.

As I’ve already written, there’s not much you can do about your lack of job-specific or occupational skills or your poor job and work history if you’re just starting out in the work world.

But poor attitude, people skills, inappropriate appearance and inflated expectations are well within your control In short, clean up your act. And if it’s already clean, polish it. You know, or should know, the importance of first impressions.

Here’s something else to know: Good luck if you think a big corporation is going to take a risk in hiring you. Your local small business owner is your best, and for most, only chance.

The best news of all is this: When the NFIB took its poll in 2007, employers looking to fill job vacancies were offering, on average, $12.50 an hour, which is more than $4 higher than today’s Colorado minimum wage rate of $8.23 an hour and more than $5 higher than today’s federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 an hour.

You’ll most likely start out at a minimum-wage rate, but with hard work, a friendly attitude, an ability to work with colleagues and a presentable appearance, you won’t be working for a minimum wage very long.

Happy job hunting.