Bryce Alonso’s first day at his job at Fire Station No. 126 in Santa Clarita didn’t quite match the appeal of the profession he aspires to.

He was told to organize a closet overwhelmed with files.

“I thought I’d be cleaning bathrooms,” the 17-year-old Valencia student said.

He ended up doing that too.

But Alonso, one of 20,000 young people in Los Angeles county and city summer jobs programs, isn’t complaining. While he waits for his opportunity to ride along in the bright red command center vehicle helping coordinate communications, he said he is learning discipline and working on his future.

In recent years, both the city and county have taken steps to increase the number of young people working on their summer break from school.

From 2009 to 2014, nearly 35,000 young people had a job through the county program. About 11,000 are employed this year.

The city of Los Angeles last year doubled the number working in its summer program from 5,000 to 10,000. Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference launching this year’s program that about 11,000 young residents of L.A. will have jobs this summer through the city’s Hire LA’s Youth.

The young workers, ages 14 to 24, are employed in city and county departments as well as at private companies such as Bank of America, Starbucks and Citibank. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who has championed the county’s youth jobs program, said since federal dollars have dwindled, the county has relied on private companies to help create the jobs.

Applicants for the county’s program are chosen through a lottery, but there are special programs for foster youth, those on probation and those from high-crime areas or in families who receive public assistance. Jobs are still available.

Applicants for the city’s program must live in L.A. and be from a household that is considered low-income or receives public assistance. Youths who are homeless or in the foster care or probation systems are also eligible for the six weeks of summer work.

Knabe said he plans to co-author a proposal to add more year-round county-wide jobs for younger people with Supervisor Hilda Solis, who said she benefitted from the program growing up in La Puente. Solis worked her first job in ninth or 10th grade as a summer Recreation Department aide for programs at Sparks Elementary School.

Their goal is to provide an additional 4,300 year-round jobs for younger people.

“It’s not just to benefit the youth. Young people bring a lot to our workforce,” Knabe said. “They like change. They like technology. They like diversity. They like being creative and learning new things. What company or organization would not want that kind of spirit around them?”

Los Angeles appears to be taking steps to buck a nationwide trend. The New York Times reported this month that since 2000 the number of 16- to 19-year-olds in the workforce has dropped 40 percent since 2000. Just one-third of teens nationwide were employed last summer.

“The data is clear. There has been slippage with respect to investment in summer youth employment opportunities, and you can index that to some of the other problems that envelope communities throughout the nation,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “Well, L.A. County and L.A. city (are) here to say we’re stepping up to this challenge. We know what we can do. We have the capacity.”

A Bureau of Labor Studies report found several reasons for the decline in the number of teens who chose to work during the summer:

• Some school districts have increased instructional time to prepare students for standardized tests and have pushed the first day of school well before Labor Day, reducing the amount of time students can work.

• The number of students who attend summer school has increased.

• More students are taking advanced courses during the summer to prepare for college.

• More adults and immigrant workers are taking entry-level positions that would normally be reserved for teens.

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl noted that a report on the minium wage released last month by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. found that nearly three-quarters of minimum-wage workers in Los Angeles County are adults.

Alonso, who earns minimum wage for his 40-hour-a-week job, said he’d rather spend his summer figuring out his future than hanging out with friends or sitting around the house.

“Most teenagers, they’re focused on trying to have fun; that’s what they’re in the mind of doing,” he said. “I think I’m probably going to miss a lot of that fun, but I think it’s more important to stay focused and try to find where you’re going in life.”