Jobs for Teens: The Complete Guide

Age is the first filter, because US federal law draws real lines at 14, 16, and 18. At 14 and 15 you can work most non-hazardous jobs, but hours are capped on school days and many states require a work permit — the smartest starts are flexible neighborhood work plus the handful of employers set up to hire younger teens. Our age guides walk each year in detail: jobs for 14-year-olds, jobs for 15-year-olds, jobs for 16-year-olds, and jobs for 17-year-olds.

The short version: at 14–15 think babysitting, pet care, yard work, and teen-friendly chains; at 16 the federal hour caps disappear and retail, food service, grocery, and lifeguarding open wide; at 17 you can add shift-lead roles, tutoring, internships, and freelancing a skill. Wherever you are on that ladder, there's a real option — the guides above tell you exactly which doors are open.

Neighborhood work is how most teens actually start earning, and it often pays better per hour than a first shift job. The big four: babysitting (highest trust, best referrals), dog walking, pet sitting, and lawn mowing and yard work. They're flexible around school, they build the references every future application asks for, and demand never really stops.

Employer jobs trade a bit of flexibility for steady, scheduled hours and a real paycheck. The two biggest teen employers are covered in our restaurant jobs guide and retail jobs guide — which stores and chains hire at which ages, what the shifts are like, and how to apply so a manager actually notices. Plenty of teens run both at once: a few scheduled shifts plus a private client or two.

The right job depends as much on when you can work as what you want to do. If you need year-round income that flexes around classes, start with the part-time jobs guide. If your weekdays are full, weekend jobs and after-school jobs cover the realistic options and how to keep them from eating your grades.

And if you want to earn hard for a few months, summer jobs is the guide — seasonal hiring is the single easiest way for a teen to get a first yes, because camps, pools, parks, and shops all staff up at once and expect first-timers.

Every teen faces the same loop — jobs want experience, experience needs a job. The way out is smaller than you think: start with people who already trust you, be specific about what you offer and when, and do the first small job so well it turns into referrals. That whole playbook is in how to get your first job.

Two skills multiply everything else. A simple one-page résumé — informal experience counts, and the teen résumé guide shows exactly what to put on it when you have “nothing” — and a calm interview. The interview guide covers the handful of questions teens actually get asked and the specific stories that answer them.

One rule stops most trouble before it starts: you never pay to get a job, and a real employer never asks you to. No deposits, no training fees, no gift cards, no bank logins or ID photos to “apply.” The full playbook — spotting scams, meeting new employers safely, and what to do when something feels wrong — is in teen job safety, and parents can read how Leadly approaches all of this in the Parent & Guardian Guide.

For any in-person work with someone you don't already know: a parent or guardian should know where you are, meet the person when possible, and stay reachable. None of this slows you down — it's what lets you say yes to opportunities with confidence.

Leadly exists to shortcut the hardest part: finding real work that's actually near you. Enter your ZIP or postal code and you'll see local jobs — neighbor-posted gigs like the ones above plus part-time roles — sorted by distance, with applying and messaging kept safely in-app. It's free to start, and unsafe job categories are blocked platform-wide.

Use the age guide for your year, pick the schedule that fits, get the safety rules down, and start close to home. A first job isn't a mystery — it's a sequence, and every step of it is covered in the guides linked on this page.