After the dismal employment numbers reported by the Labor Department for May, media attention has begun to focus on the summer job shortage for teenagers. According to one AP article published in news outlets around the globe, “Once a rite of passage to adulthood, summer jobs are disappearing,” which appeared under the heading “US teens now get adult competition for summer jobs.” A central theme has been the job competition from immigrants. Experts are quoted about the severe long-term consequences: lower skills, reduced labor force attachment, and rising inequality.

None of this is wrong, but we need a strong dose of common sense about priorities. Our labor market crisis – now in its 5th year – is centered on the inability of vast numbers of adult workers to find full-time jobs that pay living wages. That there is a major summer jobs shortage for teens is real, but it’s importance pales next to the costs of the employment problems of prime-age workers. If there is a teen crisis, it has much more to do with academic preparation and college completion than with the availability of summer jobs.

Yes, the job market for teens is likely to be as bad as last summer – we won’t know exactly how bad until the June and July numbers appear. But we do know that teen employment rates are at an all-time low. The employment rate for 16-19 year olds has collapsed since 2000, with similar huge declines in the early and late 2000s (from 45% to 36.2% between 2000 and 2004, and then from 34.3% to 25.5% between 2007 and 2010). Particularly worrisome is the sharp decline for 18-19 year old black teens: from 31.8% in 2007 to 23% in 2010. If there is any good news in these numbers, it is that between 2010 and 2012 these rates at least didn’t get much worse.

And yes, in the worst jobs collapse since the Great Depression, teenagers will face increasing competition from adults, and some of these will be immigrants. But this is nothing new – decades ago, Katherine . . .

Read more: The Teens Summer Jobs ‘Crisis’