More than 50,000 job seekers attended the CNE job fair on Wednesday, with many young applicants highlighting the difficulties of navigating a competitive and uncertain job market.
The annual fair took place at the Enercare Centre at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, and according to the CNE, nearly 54,000 people applied for the fair online, the first in its history.
Positions up for grabs included game attendees, food service staff, retail workers, and more.
The record number of applicants comes as the youth national unemployment rate was over 14 per cent as of June, according to Statistics Canada.
Dara Hosein was one of thousands of youth at the fair, the 16-year-old was filled with joy as she left with a job in the games department, however, it came after a long search.
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“The search has been hard,” she said. “I’ve been searching since I was 14, this is my first time getting a job that’s not just a one day thing,” she said.
Hosein says she’s relieved that the hunt can finally come to an end.
“I feel really special, I really felt like I showed my true self… I’m the highest in the world right now,” she said.
Sixteen-year-old Kayla Nguyen also walked away from the fair as newly employed, but walked in feeling restless, having endured a long search.
“I’ve been going to job fair after job fair, there’s so many people in the same room as you, it’s very scary and overwhelming,” Nguyen said.
Despite the search being long for many, Nguyen said she was surprised by the record-breaking turnout, and didn’t think it would be competitive.
“I wasn’t expecting much, I just wanted to come for the experience and get more comfortable doing interviews,” she said.
Eighteen-year-old Moiz M. tells Now Toronto that he arrived at the job fair at 6:00 a.m. to be at the front of the line, with hopes of securing a job after searching all summer.
“Me and my friend have been out every day at malls, sometimes they don’t even take our resumes,” he said.
Moiz says he’s starting university in the fall and wants to switch his attention to his studies, but not before hopefully being one of the lucky thousands getting hired at the event.
Eighteen-year-old Ethan S. tells Now Toronto he doesn’t care what job he walks out of the fair with, as long as he walks out with one.
“I’ve applied for maybe around 30 jobs, I’ve gotten some interviews, but bad luck,” he said.
But with thousands of positions looking to be filled at this year’s CNE, he’s hopeful that luck will change, and he has the skills to back it up.
“I can do anything,” he said.
The CNE returns to Toronto from August 15 to September 1.