The job-market recovery is leaving teenagers behind--especially those from low-income and minority backgrounds.

Less than a third of 16- to 19-year-olds had jobs this summer, essentiallyunchanged from a year ago, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. Before the recession, more than 40% of teens had summer jobs. One in four teens who tried to find work failed to get a job, far above the 7.4% unemployment rate for the broader population.

Retailers, fast-food restaurants and other traditional employers of this cohort have stepped up hiring in recent months. But with the ranks of unemployed including many better-qualified candidates, companies have little incentive to hire inexperienced teenagers. With work still scarce, college students and even college graduates are settling for jobs once done mostly by teens, while at the same time more retirees are taking part-time jobs.

'Kids are at the bottom of the labor queue, so if you don't get a strong recovery it just doesn't reach down to kids,' said Paul Harrington, a Drexel University professor who has studied the youth job market.

Young people are missing out on more than just spending money, experts say. Summer jobs are a chance to build work experience and develop everything from job-specific skills to basic work habits like showing up on time. Working, whether during summer or the school year, increases rates of high-school graduation and college attendance, and leads to higher earnings down the line.

'Working while you're in school, working in summers, really matters,' Mr. Harrington said. 'Kids who have worked in high school tend to do better later in life.'

Robin Gramajo, an 18-year-old high-school senior in Los Angeles, spent all summer applying for jobs with no luck. A friend of his found an internship with Bank of America through a city-run program that helps low-income teens find career-path jobs. With minimal previous work history, Mr. Gramajo couldn't even land a job at a local diner.

'It's the work experience. You're getting a young guy and they have no work experience and they're young,' he said. 'Would you rather have that or someone with more experience?'

Mr. Gramajo said he worries that by missing out on the chance to work this summer, he will have a harder time finding a job when he graduates from high school this December, after the fall semester.

Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston, said the weak teen job situation is worsening existing racial and socioeconomic disparities in the labor market. Just one in four Hispanic teens worked this summer, and just one in five African-American ones.

'Kids from low-income, minority backgrounds on the teenage side have just been completely thrown out of this labor market,' Mr. Sum said. 'Young black males are just not getting any work at all.'

Low-income youths lack the connections that help their middle-class peers earn jobs, and often don't even know how to apply. Karla Bernal, who completed her junior year of high school in Chicago last spring, wanted to work this summer but didn't even know where to begin. A counselor at Youth Guidance, a local nonprofit, told the 17-year-old about a position at a nearby grocery store, and helped her prepare for an interview.

'We sat in his office and we kind of prepared a little speech and he told me to call them,' Ms. Bernal said. She landed an interview, and got a job as a cashier for $8.25 an hour.

Ms. Bernal said it has been tough going to work every day while her friends enjoy their free time. But she has been able to put $100 of each paycheck into savings, helps her mother pay bills, and now plans to buy contact lenses to replace her glasses.