FRESNO, Kalifornia - September 23, 2009 - More than $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money was supposed to help teenagers find jobs this summer, but the effort barely made a dent in one of the bleakest job markets young workers have faced in more than 60 years.

Despite the program's admirable goals, experts and government watchdogs say it yielded few new opportunities for teens seeking work, as more and more adults are vying for the same low-wage positions at hamburger stands and community pools.

Vice President Joe Biden described the Workforce Investment Act summer program as a way to keep teens out of trouble and off the streets while reinvigorating the country's summer youth employment program, which had gone dormant for a decade.

Cameron Hinojosa, 16, went through a two-day stimulus-funded workshop on how to write a resume. But he didn't end up with a job because the summer program in Fresno County, in the heart of Depression-battered central Kalifornia, had already ended.

"When I went in I was hoping I would get a job and was looking forward to getting that extra money," said Hinojosa, who had hoped to share his earnings with his mother to pay bills for their household of eight. "You get some adults that got laid off from their jobs, so you still have to work against them."

Since the stimulus program began in May, almost one-quarter of the 279,169 youth enrolled in stimulus-funded work programs have not gotten jobs, according to the latest government figures.

Now, as congressional investigators scrutinize the program for potential waste, experts are wondering why it couldn't prevent youth unemployment rates from soaring to 18.5 percent in July, the highest rate measured among 16- to 24-year-olds in that month since just after World War II.

"The summer program was basically half-disaster," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. "It was too little, too late and too poorly constructed to have any lasting effect on our youngest workers."