Higher gas prices, low-paying jobs, and increasing school expenses has led teenagers to slow down their shopping. Long considered "recession-proof" spenders due to their discretionary income, many have had to confront the impact of a slowing economy. According to a survey conducted by BIGresearch in July, 60% of teenagers said they had become more frugal in the last six months--compared with only 50 percent of adults.

Even the usual fall bump in sales when college and high school kids go back to school didn't happen this year. Piper Jaffray released their semi-annual survey of teens that said that teen spending on fashion was down a whopping 20 percent from a year earlier.

This might be an unexpected benefit to the slow economy: parents saying "No." Rather than handing cash to over-indulged children, parents are looking at their budgets and setting limits. They are insisting that kids look for bargains and evaluate whether they really "need" something. This is actually very good training, because this is how the world really works.

Jamie Lynn Spears (sister of Britney) is on the cover of the latest edition of OK! Magazine holding her newborn daughter, Maddie. Looking beautiful and rested, she is quoted as saying "Being a mom is the best feeling in the world." A teenage icon, Jamie Lynn is the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoe 101," and idolized by millions of young girls. Pregnant at 16 and a mother by age 17, Jamie Lynn is described in the article as living in "domestic bliss."

Great message for the kids. Maybe it works this way for wealthy celebrities, but for most teens the happily ever after ending doesn't happen. In real life, teen pregnancy traps women in a cycle of low paying jobs and poverty. In fact, teen parents are nine times more likely to live in poverty long term.

It's the toughest job market in recent memory for teens, who are finding themselves competing with more people for fewer jobs, a result of layoffs that have left many people 10 years older or more desperate for jobs and willing to consider work that was once the domain of the under-20 crowd.

It's probably too late for summer jobs now, but many teens will want to work during the school year to save for college or, more likely, blow their money on convenience store snacks and overpriced, overrated, mall-based teen apparel. Struggling to find a job isn't any fun but, in the long run, dealing with a tough job market as a teen might be the best thing that could happen to someone.

Teens will have to learn how to put together a resume, interview well, dress appropriately, and hunt for jobs, skills that they could have gotten by without in a better economy -- it's no secret that many of the great entrepreneurs (Sam Walton being the most prominent) came of age during the Great Depression. Adversity breeds life skills.

If your teen is struggling to find a job, consider heading to the library to read up on job-hunting strategies -- it'll get him thinking about it long before most people do, and he'll be better for it.

It's possible that I'm becoming a cold-hearted miser but many of the stories about the havoc wreaked by rising gas prices and a recessionary environment strike me as, well, kind of funny in that they expose the culture of entitlement that has taken hold of our country.

The New York Times reports that $4 gas has made this "the summer the cruising died" for many teenagers. Some of the lines in this article are actually hilarious: "Police officers who keep watch on weekend cruising zones say fewer youths are spending their time driving around in circles, with more of them hanging out in parking lots, malls or movie theaters."

Oh the humanity! Teens have to spend their summers at malls and movie theaters instead of driving in circles? We need a law against that -- a bailout! A subsidy! A driving around in circles stimulus package!

The good news is that high gas prices combined with more restrictive laws governing teen driving mean that fewer high school students have cars at all -- which is good because that money would generally be much better used for college or, gasp, saving for the future.

Take the $6 thousand you were going to spend on a teen's car and put it in a savings account paying 3.5%, and it could be a down payment on a house in not too many years. Then add in the savings from less money spent on gas and convenience store sodas, and you realize that not buying your kid a car could be the best investment of her life.

The current economic malaise has made this a difficult job market. It's especially tough for teens because the consumer is especially weak -- and most jobs suited to teenagers are in the retail sector.

A recent SnagAJob survey shows that 49% of hiring managers aren't planning to hire anyone at all this summer -- and 54% of summer jobs that are available are expected to go to people who worked at the same place last summer.

What's a teen to do? Fill out a ton of applications. One expert quoted in this Fortune column suggests seeking employment at 12 or more places. if you're a parent, you'll want to help junior put together a professional-looking resume emphasizing scholastic, athletic, and community achievements. It's a competitive market, and even 14-year olds have to find a way to differentiate themselves from the pack.

In the long run, this is a wonderful opportunity for kids to develop great skills. Sure, it's a lot more fun when jobs are easier to come by. But learning how to interview well and make yourself stand out are skills that will serve kids well for their whole lives.

Another tip: getting a job with the government could have better resume-building and networking opportunities than folding Marilyn Manson t-shirts at Hot Topic. Check out StudentJobs.gov to find openings in your area. Jobs there may be more plentiful. As Ron Paul will tell you, the government continues to expand rapidly.

Just as we inform you that department stores are planning to ride out the recession by leveraging teen spending, it is being reported that teens are becoming more thrifty. The change in behavior is being attributed not only to the coolness derived from thrift store finds, but also because teens are beginning to feel belt tightening at home and at work.

Teen hiring has dropped 5%, a much larger decline than the job market overall. This dip is attributed to the pressure local stores are feeling as part of the economic slowdown. At the same time as are teens discovering paychecks harder to find, parents are also cutting back on extras and allowance. These combined factors have high end retailers like Abercrombie and American Eagle reporting lower profit expectations, though Aeropostale and discount chain Steve and Barry's are expected to do well.

As someone who has had a job since a few weeks before I could legally work in my state, I worry about the trouble many teens may have as they try to find summer work. The jobs I had over the years were useful for many things other than getting spending money, including experience, adding to my maturity and building savings for college. I hope that there is an upswing in teen hiring as schools let out and that teens will put some of their summer paycheck in the bank or towards school payments. If teen hiring continues to decline through the summer months, business could get really tough for retailers whose niche is the teen market.

Watch out! Major retailers believe they have found a "recession proof" group of shoppers -- your teenager.

In a bid to avoid the closing of stores at malls nationwide, retailers are looking to capitalize on the influence teens have over household purchases. They believe that middle class teens won't feel the affects of a recession. Research shows that teens influence 90% of grocery and apparel purchases. Many stores are changing displays and using big names to lure a trend conscious younger market in their doors. The hope is that parents will come along too and buy items as well, further boosting the stores sales in an otherwise difficult time.

I see several issues with this strategy, one, which USA Today points out, is that children typically do not shop in the same stores their parents do. Call it rebellion or a strange fashion sense, but the last place most teenagers want to go is the same store their mom just bought a pantsuit at.

The second issue is, even teenagers who can't drive don't like to go shopping with their parents. Growing up, my sister and I would beg to be dropped off at the local mall with cash or mom's credit card rather than be forced to try on a plethora of clothes with mom in tow. If teens don't want to be in the same building, let alone the same store with their parents retailers will have difficulty raking in the extra impulse buys from parents.

Finally, if your teenager is influencing 90% of the grocery and apparel purchases for your household, you better be raking in the cash, because from my personal experience, teens tend to have expensive taste in clothing and food. Next time you head to the grocery store leave Johnny at home and during your next trip to the mall, show Suzy where TJ Maxx is.

I didn't get my driver's license until I was 18, for 2 reasons: first, I was afraid of driving and secondly, as geeky as this sounds, I preferred to save my money and invest it, not blow it on a car, sky-high insurance premiums, and increasingly expensive gas. And then there are the other expenses that come with having a car: increased meals out, $1.29 a bottle water at convenience stores and, of course, repairs.

All in all, I would estimate that I saved more than $10 thousand by waiting an extra 2 years to get a car and start driving. And I hate to be that guy but, if you can save $10 thousand by the time you're 18 and invest it at 10% for the next 50 years, you'll accumulate more than $1.1 million. If more people, or perhaps just some people, had done that a generation ago, perhaps we wouldn't have to endure endless concern about baby boomers facing a declining standard of living in retirement.