Given the current economy and persistently weak job market, getting a head start on summer work is a great idea.

Robert Weisman of the Boston Globe reports.

Home for the holidays, college students hunt for summer work

College students home for the holidays will be bouncing between family get-togethers, catching up with friends, and bracing for the inevitable squabbles with parents over cars and curfews.

But high on the Yuletide to-do list this season will be hunting for jobs and internships. With the economy limping and college debt piling up like snow, the heat is on students — and parents who help foot their bills — to spend time over winter break polishing resumes, buttonholing contacts, and hustling to line up stimulating (and, ideally, paying) work for next summer.

“The pressure has ratcheted up so much,” said Carleton Kendrick, a family therapist from Millis who says the job scramble often comes up during his therapy sessions with parents. “It’s the big subject at family gatherings over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.”

Kendrick said the pressure can trigger new intergenerational flashpoints. “It’s absolutely driven by the financial anxiety of parents who see college tuition going up every year while their own income is stagnant,” he said. “People are up to their eyeballs in loans.”

Parental angst aside, the sense of urgency about getting ready for the summer is not unreasonable. Over the past few years, summer jobs have been tough to come by. In July, the national teen unemployment rate hit 23.7 percent, essentially unchanged from the year before.