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In fact, according to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 recently hit its highest level in nearly 15 years, not counting the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CBC Kids News reached out to Canada\u2019s minister of jobs and families, Patty Hajdu, to ask what the government is doing to address youth unemployment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We did not hear back in time for our deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We also took to the streets of Brampton, Ontario, to ask kids and teens about their goals for work, their luck finding part-time jobs and their top tips for getting your first one.<\/p>\n
Click play to hear what they had to say, then keep reading to get some job-hunting tips from experts. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Experts share their top 5 job-search tips<\/p>\n
CBC Kids News spoke to two employment experts to get their best tips for landing your first job: Scott Ravary, a senior manager with Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development; and Hilary Hagar, a researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s Future Skills Centre.<\/p>\n
1. Use your network<\/p>\n
Ravary and Hagar suggest reaching out to friends, family and even contacts at your school to tell them you are looking for a job. They might be able to share some helpful information.<\/p>\n
Ask questions, be curious and see where it leads you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2. Practise your soft skills through volunteering\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both experts agree that there is a high demand for soft skills \u2014 like communication, teamwork and social skills.<\/p>\n
Volunteering can help you get out of your comfort zone and learn to communicate well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can learn and flourish those skills through volunteering [and] through the little side kind of work that you might do for your neighbour,\u201d said Ravary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3. Turn extracurriculars into experience<\/p>\n
You might worry that you don\u2019t have enough job experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there are other kinds of experience you can put on your resum\u00e9, Hagar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to leverage your volunteer experiences or any leadership experiences that you might have through school or through extracurriculars,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Be sure to include sports, clubs and school projects \u2014 anything where you showed initiative and leadership skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re playing a sport and you know you\u2019re excelling at that sport, you\u2019re likely seen as a leader within that sports team,\u201d said Ravary. \u201cThat leadership can be something that\u2019s brought forward in a resum\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/CP160505011.JPG\")
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Looking for your first job might feel intimidating when you don\u2019t have work experience, but experts say there are ways to bulk up your resum\u00e9. (Image credit: Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
4. Ask to job shadow\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can learn a lot from reaching out to someone who has a job you think is cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk to somebody in the field that you\u2019re interested in,\u201d Hagar said. You can ask about shadowing them to see what it is like to work in that field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5. Use power words on your resum\u00e9<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t fear a one-page resum\u00e9, said Ravary: \u201cKeep it simple, keep it clean, keep it honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He suggests starting your resum\u00e9 by using action words. \u201cThings like: organized, led, created.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And be \u201cquantitative\u201d in your measurements.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut a number to it so that it really highlights for the employer what you can achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For example, instead of \u201craised money for charity at a bake sale,\u201d try \u201craised $100 dollars for charity at a bake sale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Know your rights, too<\/p>\n
Once you get a job, remember that even though you\u2019re not an adult, you still have rights as an employee, Ravary said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re entitled to breaks, you\u2019re entitled to fair pay and a safe workplace.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Be familiar with your rights, he said, as each province and territory has different rules for teen workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Have more questions? Want to tell us how we’re doing? Use the \u201csend us feedback\u201d link below. \u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f\u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youth unemployment rate is at a 15-year high, says Statistics Canada Are you thinking about getting a part-time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[45,49,48,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-161226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}