Graduation hunting in the hand, Sarah Chung poses for photos in the school’s gift before his call ceremony. The atmosphere of the campus is cheerful, but what comes next is sobering: this honor student is graduating in one of the worst youth markets seen in decades.
“It’s gloomy,” said the 23 -year -old graduate of the Communications and Media Program at the University of Calgary. He has not been able to find a job in his field and said he intends to obtain a master’s degree.
“I think it’s difficult just for everything that is happening with the economy, with our society and politics,” he said. “There is a whole [lot] To talk about “a recession is approaching.” I am not an economist, but I can also see it too. “
Chung is part of a generation that faces the highest youth unemployment rate in Canada in approximately a quarter of a century.
In addition to the pandemic, the Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 face the highest youth unemployment rate that this country has seen since the mid -1990s, according to the data of the first quarter of Statistics Canada.
At that time, Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister of Canada, generation Z was nothing more than a brightness in the eyes of his parents, and the global workforce had not yet been transformed through social networks, concert work and artificial intelligence.
Fast progress until 2025, and the youngest workers in Canada are dealing with a perfect storm of economic conditions: an inflation crisis that immediately reached pandemia; an increase in population growth that has exceeded the number of available jobs; And now, a country approaches recession as the United States trade war causes uncertainty in the economy.
An expert says that youth unemployment can be a “canary in the coal mine” that foreshadows broader problems in the labor market.
“It is a kind of early warning indicator,” said Tricia Williams, director of Research at Future Skills Center, a laboratory of the Metropolitan University of Toronto dedicated to studying the future of work.
“It’s not just about obtaining experience in jobs and skills. These are the greatest structural support and the environment in which young people are.”
LABOR MARKET PATIOZO
The Canadian labor market has endured a kind of cervical whip in recent years.
After the restrictions of the pandemic era were built, the companies celebrated with a hiring spree: the economy recovered the work he lost during the crisis and the young Canadians obtained the rewards of a summer labor boom.
But employers soon fought to find workers and fill publications, as a result that the workforce had been reduced during the pandemic. The federal government and public policy experts prescribed greater immigration as an antidote of scarcity, which led to an increase in the working population of the Z and Millennial generation.
The feeling of hiring “was really high leaving the pandemic, which was probably never going to last,” said Brendon Bernard, a senior economist who really follows the tendencies of the youth market.
As the accumulation of hiring cleared, other conditions began to stop the economy, he added.
The beginning of an episode of fierce inflation in mid -2021 It activated a domino effect: consumers retreated in the expense and the Canada Bank began an aggressive cycle of increased interest rates, which led companies to delay hiring as economic trust deteriorated.
Older workers began to work secondly to pay the invoices during the affordability. Some experts suspect that the automation of routine tasks could be leading to less entry level opportunities, but there are not enough data to say how extended this is.
“As things have become and the employer’s appetite has returned to Earth, the youth employment situation has weakened,” Bernard said.
‘Is discouraging’
Youth unemployment began to work again in the spring of 2024. At the same time, the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training, an economic measure called Neet rate, has increased among young people aged 20, mainly driven by not students who have problems finding work.
Bernard said there was a cautious optimism earlier this year, when the labor market seemed to stabilize. But the Canadian economy has been shaken by the uncertainty of the US trade war since April, potentially suffocating the hiring appetite as the general unemployment rate increases.
“He is discouraging,” said Thivian Varnacumaran, a student of electrical engineering in his last year at the University of York who estimates that he has requested between 400 and 500 jobs, without luck, since he began looking for in December.
“I would not say that I am pessimistic, but I am really realistic about the situation,” added the 25 -year -old.
Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist of the Alberta Central Commercial Association, says that the economy is now “slow” even without having violated the recession territory. He expects more signs of deterioration in the coming months, and pointed out that young people will probably have the worst part of those conditions.
“Often, companies do what I would call the type of strategy ‘last, first to leave’ when they reduce staff,” said St-Arnaud. “The youngest population that has been hired is more risk of being fired in a recession.”
The number of temporary foreign workers hired in Canada shot in the last two years, particularly in food and retail industries, and the youth unemployment rate has shot him. Andrew Chang explains government changes that led to the hiring peak, and why economists believe they are having a serious impact on both the young employment applicants and the economy in general.
Unemployment scars
The gloomy hiring panorama has some young people who take jobs only to stay at the forefront of invoices.
“I spent two hours sweeping yesterday, and I have a title in mechanical engineering,” said Ben Gooch de Dundas, 24, Ontario.
The McMaster graduate is working part -time at a garden center to cover some of his life expenses, after having requested more than 100 jobs since December with only a handful of interviews to show. “I feel that I am only throwing darts on a wall and I hope to be lucky and hit something.”
The data show that it is quite common for young graduates to work in a job that only requires a high school diploma.
But Canadian research has shown that being unemployed at an early age during a recession can lead to a loss of persistent but not permanent profits for many years later, a well -studied phenomenon known as “salary scars.” Another research also suggests that entering the labor market during a recession can affect a person’s health results.
“Where you can lead to scars, I mean, we could consider it as a kind of temporary spot, but it can have long -term implications when the economy enters a serious recession,” said Miles Corak, an economy professor based in Ottawa at the Graduate Center of the University of New York City.
The current18:52Address high youth unemployment in Canada
Finding a job is increasingly frustrating for young people in Canada, since youth unemployment costs about 10 years. We look at what the problem is driving and how to change it.
“The long -term profit prospects are cushioned for people who graduate during the recession, not because they are not obtaining work, but eventually fall into a part of the labor market that is not so high, in types of occupations that they did not anticipate doing,” said Corak.
The economic recessions seen in Canada in the early eighties and nineties show the impact of that healing.
Youth unemployment reached a peak of 18.3 percent in 1983, and increased again to 17.2 percent in 1992 and 1993, with real salary falls observed among cohorts from 17 to 24 in later years.
‘I’m waiting for life to start’
The lack of opportunities for young people is not good for the rest of the country, said Williams, the researcher. “Young people are a treasure of resources that we need to support and also produce dividends,” he said.
Corak offers a different perspective. “I’m not so sure of affecting the economy [so much] As the nature of our economy is more clearly printed on younger people, “he observed.
Some young people said, they are doing very well and winning more than their parents, while others are losing ground. “What we are seeing is that many young people much more stressed, and run faster on a running tape to stay still.”
Lately, Gooch has been reflecting on where his parents were at this stage of their lives. When they were about 20 years old, they were working on their careers, they had real estate and were building a life together, he said.
The young engineer has not resigned from his search: he is requesting work throughout the country and abroad, both inside and outside his field. He has accepted that he does not know how his circumstances will see in a year.
“I still don’t have full time, I haven’t started my career,” he said. “I am waiting for life to begin.”
