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By Ed Stoddard

FORT WORTH, June 11 (Reuters) - Dana Hardgraves, 17, has had no luck finding a summer job so far but hopes to land one thanks to President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package.

'I'm looking for anything to make some money,' Hardgraves, who will graduate next year from high school, said as she waited to fill out an application for a summer jobs program.

Teens who traditionally earn spending money and workplace experience working through their summer vacations find themselves competing this year with displaced workers, victims of a deep recession that has sent unemployment to a 25-year high of 9.4 percent.

Some could find relief from a White House youth jobs program financed by the $787 billion stimulus package which Obama hopes will turn the economy around.

The jobs program for Tarrant County, Texas, which includes the city of Fort Worth, has received $4.3 million from the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Investment Act to provide employment for low-income people aged 14-24 this summer.

Nationally $1.2 billion has been dedicated to youth programs and employment.

'I estimate they plan in creating up to 400,000 jobs this summer for low-income youth,' said Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Northeastern University. The White House wants to create or save 600,000 jobs in total this summer.

Jobs in Tarrant County will include clerical work in municipal offices and landscaping. The aim is to put about 700 young people to work.

Hardgraves, who aspires to be a school principal some day, said she was finding it tough to find work because of competition from adults for low-wage jobs.

'I've applied at places like Six Flags (an amusement park) but adults are working there because times are hard,' she said.

The economy has shed six million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Another 345,000 were lost last month, though the pace of losses is slowing.

'During a recession adults take jobs that teenagers normally take. You start seeing adults working in McDonald's on the weekends,' said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland.



TEENAGE UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS BLEAK

Only 30 percent of U.S. teenagers have any kind of job, part or full-time -- the lowest such number ever recorded, according to Sum.

He said teen unemployment was last at current levels in 1982 and has never gone higher in the 60 years that the statistic has been kept.

'This really hurts retailers because kids will spend 90 to 95 percent of what they earn immediately,' said Sum.

For black or Hispanic high school students in families with an annual income of under $25,000, only around eight to nine percent have any kind of job, Sum said.

'Any job would be good,' said Daisy Roman, a 17-year-old Hispanic high school senior, as she waited for her name to be called at the Fort Worth processing center.

'There are lots of places laying people off. I've been looking for work but not finding any.'

Morici said government programs were often the only places where disadvantaged young people could find jobs. Many live in inner city areas with few employment prospects.

But he disputed the administration's claim of creating or saving 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days.

'The notion that they created or saved this many jobs in the first 100 days is just hokum,' Morici said.

At the Fort Worth processing center, people still seemed grateful. 'Thank you Barack!,' said Karen Ricks, whose son was seeking employment. Keywords: FINANCIAL STIMULUS/YOUTH

(Editing by Alan Elsner, Dallas newsroom, +1 972 632 7041, edward.stoddard@thomsonreuters.com)

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