{"id":609459,"date":"2026-04-17T04:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609459\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T04:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T04:08:10","slug":"youth-facing-perfect-storm-in-job-hunt-this-summer-economists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609459\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth facing \u2018perfect storm\u2019 in job hunt this summer, economists say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chloe Rahman, a third-year communications student at Carleton University, experienced the competitive market for months after starting her summer job hunt in December last year.Spencer Colby\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Young people looking to get their foot in the labour market\u2019s door this summer are feeling the crunch of a sluggish economy, fierce competition and fewer opportunities \u2013 a challenging situation for recent graduates and students in search of seasonal work.<\/p>\n

Youth have been consistently struggling in the job market. For more than a year, the unemployment rate for 15- to 24-year-olds has hovered<\/a> around 14 per cent, more than double Canada\u2019s overall jobless rate, according to Statistics Canada. <\/p>\n

Some young people are applying to hundreds of jobs, but employers are leaning away from entry-level candidates or hiring less because of economic uncertainty, experts say. For youth, being unable to get into the job market now can set back their careers by years and discourage some from job-seeking at all, leading to more long-term unemployment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe rising youth unemployment rate actually understates how bad the job market has gotten,\u201d said Brendon Bernard, a senior economist at job search company Indeed Hiring Lab Canada. He pointed to the youth employment rate \u2013 the percentage of young people who work \u2013 as the more worrying statistic.<\/p>\n

How AI is disrupting career paths and forcing Gen Z \u2013 and everyone else \u2013 to adapt<\/a><\/p>\n

Last September, that number hit 53.6 per cent \u2013 the lowest youth employment rate since November, 1998. <\/p>\n

Canada currently has a \u201clow-fire, low-hire\u201d economy, said Tricia Williams, the director of research at the Future Skills Centre research institute. While companies are generally not laying off scores of employees, they\u2019re also not hiring as much, which Dr. Williams tied to the economic uncertainty posed by U.S. tariffs and many consumers watching their wallets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not selling as many ice cream cones, you don\u2019t need as many scoopers scooping ice cream,\u201d Dr. Williams said.<\/p>\n

Altogether, young people looking for a summer job are staring down a \u201cperfect storm,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

Facing that market is stressful, said Fatima Khalid, a first-year computing science student at the University of Alberta. During her job search, she submitted an estimated 450 applications.<\/p>\n

Ms. Khalid had to pass on many opportunities where she was asked to work hours that didn\u2019t align with her class schedule. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As pandemic restrictions eased, businesses rushed to hire labour, but the Bank of Canada\u2019s efforts to curb inflation through higher interest rates cooled the economy, and recent U.S. tariffs on Canada have also chilled hiring plans.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s jobless rate falls to 6.5% driven by rise in part-time, youth employment<\/a><\/p>\n

In January, there were about 492,000 job vacancies in the country \u2013 down from a peak of nearly one million in the first half of 2022. That means there were about three unemployed people for every job vacancy in the country, compared to 1.3 people for every vacancy three years ago. <\/p>\n

As employers pulled back on hiring, a population surge from immigration between 2022 and 2024 created stiff competition for jobs. The youth labour market \u201cjust fell off a cliff\u201d midway through 2024, Mr. Bernard said.<\/p>\n

Last year, youth unemployment rose<\/a> in the summer months, culminating in a 14.6 per cent unemployment rate in September. Excluding the peak pandemic years, that was the highest jobless rate for Canadian youth since September, 2010.<\/p>\n

In March, the rate of people aged 20 to 24 who were employed was 68.9 per cent, down about three percentage points from three years ago. <\/p>\n

But teenagers had an even worse time. In March, 36.7 per cent of 15- to 19-year-olds were employed \u2013 a drop of about 10 percentage points from March, 2023.<\/p>\n

Chloe Rahman, a third-year communications student at Carleton University, experienced the competitive market for months after starting her summer job hunt in December last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou apply to 100 jobs and then you get one or two interviews, and then you might not even get those jobs,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Will Gen Z be better at saving for retirement than other generations?<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s \u201ca lot of desperation\u201d among young people job hunting, said Timothy Lang, the president of national charity Youth Employment Services. <\/p>\n

The usual job competition that \u201cheats up\u201d ahead of the summer is exacerbated by the fact that employers don\u2019t receive around 20 or 30 in-person applications any more. Now that everything is done digitally, they can receive hundreds, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany young people are getting lost in that digital quagmire,\u201d Mr. Lang said.<\/p>\n

Young people whose parents have good networks will likely have an advantage in the challenging labour market, said Dr. Williams of the Future Skills Centre. That\u2019s why public programs to support youth employment are important, she added. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot everyone has parents with connections or might not know people who are hiring, so we\u2019re really at risk of exacerbating structural inequalities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the long term, a young person\u2019s inability to find work early in their career can negatively impact their future wages and discourage them from pursuing certain careers, Dr. Williams said. <\/p>\n

But, there\u2019s reason to be \u201ccautiously optimistic\u201d about their prospects, Mr. Lang said. Summer is when many positions for young people open up \u2013 such as the 100,000 Canada Summer Jobs openings<\/a> announced by the federal government on Monday. <\/p>\n

Starting this summer, Ms. Khalid has been hired to guide tours and help with events at the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. She feels \u201cway better\u201d having secured a position, especially one that aligns with her interests and will even continue into the next academic year, she said. <\/p>\n

Ms. Rahman will be working as a lifeguard, a position she landed through connections with a lifeguarding supervisor she worked for in high school. She is disappointed she won\u2019t be working in a communications job more aligned with her career path, but said that she will keep applying for more opportunities. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a job at all is definitely a relief,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Chloe Rahman, a third-year communications student at Carleton University, experienced the competitive market…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-609459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-ca","16":"tag-canada","17":"tag-canada-news","18":"tag-canada-sports","19":"tag-canada-sports-news","20":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","21":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","22":"tag-canadian-news","23":"tag-economy","24":"tag-education","25":"tag-environment","26":"tag-federal-government","27":"tag-foreign-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","30":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","31":"tag-government","32":"tag-life-news","33":"tag-lifestyle","34":"tag-local-news","35":"tag-manitoba","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609459","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=609459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}