Ryan Semenuk rode his bike up and down the streets of his Toronto neighbourhood, stopping at every business he thought might give him a job.

He handed out “tons, tons” of résumés, but the 18-year-old Grade 12 student didn’t get any replies.

“I was really persistent and aggressive and all that, but it just didn’t work out,” he says. “I was riding to every store possible.”

Finally, Mr. Semenuk attended a job fair, where he landed work this summer flipping burgers at Lick’s, a fast-food restaurant. But the competition was tough, he says, as people who appeared much older and more experienced were at the same job fair vying for the opening.

“There’s a lot of people there that … look very intelligent and intimidating, and you’re all sitting in the same room,” he says. “It’s very hard, because you think that the people around are better than you.”

Summer employment has been customary for generations of high-school teens. But these days, because of a lacklustre economy and a preference among employers for more mature and experienced staff, many high-school students are finding themselves displaced by university- and college-aged students in temporary, entry-level retail and hospitality jobs traditionally occupied by younger teens.