Nick Gentry (pictured above) will be able to celebrate two major accomplishments this month: He’s graduating from high school and, after a very long job search, he has landed his first job.

That Gentry, 18, will be collecting a paycheck makes him a rarity in today’s working world.

Only about 25 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds currently are working, a drop of 10 percentage points from just five years ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The percentage of teenagers who have jobs, expressed as the ratio of employment to population, hovered between 40 and 50 percent for much of the 1980s and 1990s. The percentage began dropping about a decade ago, but the declines have been especially steep since the beginning of the Great Recession in late 2007.

With summer approaching and the job market showing signs of improvement, teens could have a better shot at getting hired than they have had in years. But it could take many more years for teens to resume working at pre-recession levels.