The job market for Canadian youth has been lacklustre for years. And the younger the job seeker, the worse it gets.
For those 15 to 19, the employment rate – the percentage of the population that is working – has plunged by nearly nine percentage points since mid-2022, according to Statistics Canada. The decline is three times larger than among 20-to-24-year-olds.
Mid-2022 was a high point for the Canadian job market as pandemic-era health restrictions were being lifted, and the unemployment rate hit a modern-day low of 4.8 per cent in July of that year. Employment rates have since declined in most age groups, although not among older Canadians.
Brendon Bernard, senior economist at hiring site Indeed Canada, recently pointed to the teenage jobs crisis in a report. He found the decline can be largely attributed to weaker employment in two sectors: retail, and accommodation and food services.
Mr. Bernard floated several explanations for the crunch. Hiring appetite has been weak for years, and that has a profound effect on labour market entrants, such as youth. A surge of temporary residents, such as international students, came to the country in recent years, ratcheting up competition for jobs. (The number of temporary residents is now in decline, but the teenage employment rate has yet to improve.)
Further, because of a weak hiring climate, twentysomething workers aren’t necessarily moving up to better opportunities in their fields of choice, thus crowding out teens in service jobs.
“For instance, as recent university grads have found it tougher to enter professional services and finance, a growing number are working in accommodation and food services instead,” Mr. Bernard said.
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