MANKATO — Kaylie Erickson says she’s one of the lucky ones.

The 21-year-old college student spends her summer days watering flowers and trimming bushes as a city of Mankato seasonal worker. In other words, she’s employed. Which is more than she can say for some of her friends.

“I feel bad for the people who don’t have a job,” said Erickson, who attends Colorado State University at Pueblo on a soccer scholarship.

She said when she first applied for her job with the city, it helped that she knew someone on the inside. Once she got that job, she did well and was asked back the following summer. This summer will be her third.

“I think if you do a good job, they let you come back,” she said.

The city said it’s hiring just slightly fewer employees than last year. But elsewhere, the summer job situation is a tricky one. High school students are reporting difficult times finding work. And at one temporary employment agency, the number of jobs available is down by as much as 80 percent from a year ago.

Gloria Zachow, branch manager at Mankato’s Manpower Temporary Services, said the outlook this summer is bleak.

“I wish I had something good to say about it, but it is so limited,” she said. “There’s not much out there.”

Companies are fighting to keep hours for their permanent employees, Zachow said, and some of them are simply not adding any seasonal help for the summer.

And if you haven’t lined up your summer job by now, it might be too late.

“My first instinct would be yes, it probably is too late,” Zachow said. “Just from speaking to the ones coming in here, they’ve already exhausted everything ... One particular company (we work with), I had 30 students there. This year I have none. It’s down more than 50 percent. Maybe 80 percent from previous year. That’s the reality this summer.”

Tom Villagomez, a guidance counselor at Mankato West High School, said he’s heard a similar refrain from students.

Students he’s heard from have said they’re having a hard time even getting applications to fill out. In other cases, students are talking about adults who are falling back to intern status just to keep their jobs.

And sometimes it’s an simply a more qualified adult taking a job that, in years past, may have gone to a high school or college student.

A field goal away from Erickson is Carrie Wyatt. Wyatt, who was pushing a Toro mower over the lawn at Jackson Square Park, lives in Nicollet and works full time as a teacher at Immanuel Lutheran School in Courtland.

She picks up a part-time job during the summers. Luckily, one of her students was the son of a city of Mankato worker, which helped her land the job. Mom helped, too.

“My mom has been looking for jobs for me online,” Wyatt said. “She doesn’t want me to go without a job.”

At Minnesota State University, the writing has been on the job posting wall for a few months.

Pam Weller-Dengel, director of the Career Development Center, said it’s one of those years where, even if a student job applicant does everything right, it’s still tough to find work.

“Our job listings, this last semester, are definitely down, and part time and seasonal is down more than the other areas,” she said. “I hate to say that.”

And for the most part, the Mankato region seems to be faring better than other parts of the state.

Figures released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show the Twin Cities’ unemployment rate in April (7.8 percent) was three percentage points higher than the previous year.

Different areas of the state veered a little from the Twin Cities area’s performance. Duluth’s rate was the highest with 9.5 percent. Mankato’s was the lowest at 6.3 percent.

As for advice, Villagomez tells young job seekers to make sure they have a face-to-face contact when requesting an application. This will give them a chance, he says, to talk to an employer about themselves and to display their confidence and assertiveness.

Also, he advises job seekers to make sure to dress properly, perhaps even professionally. Follow up with formal thank-you letters to places that have granted interviews. And while it may be too late for some, encouraging a prospective employer to check out your school attendance history — provided that history shows good attendance — can help.

Weller-Dengel said people eager for work this summer may need to lower their expectations and broaden their outlook.

“It may mean making compromises or taking hours you’re not thrilled with,” she said. “Make yourself as valuable as possible. Do whatever it takes.”

Zachow says Manpower also is offering help to anyone struggling to find work. They offer training in online skills, computer skills, accounting, management and other areas.

“We’re definitely seeing piqued interest in that,” she said.