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Simone Janssen says getting a head start in life is difficult when young people like her are struggling to get a job.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old student at Winnipeg’s Tec Voc high school says she browses the job boards, asks the high school’s career education team for opportunities and reaches out to businesses asking “please hire me,” but has had no luck so far.<\/p>\n
“I’m trying to be independent from my parents.\u2026 Mostly trying to save up for a car so I can get to jobs, get to school, and I’m trying to save up to go to university as well,” she said. <\/p>\n
“It’s pretty difficult.”<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Tec Voc students on the challenges of finding a job:<\/p>\n
Information Radio – MB8:33The Young and the Jobless: The high school student job hunt <\/p>\n
CBC’s Chloe Friesen visits Tec Voc High School in Winnipeg, where she meets four students who access the school’s Career Education department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Selihome Gebreyesus, 16, says whenever she has free time, she spends about an hour on Indeed looking for businesses who are hiring, but she’s also having a hard time getting calls back.<\/p>\n
“It’s not like we’re sitting at home scrolling on our phones, we click one job and call it a day,” she said. <\/p>\n
“We’re going everywhere we can. We’re talking to as much people as we can.\u2026 We’re actually trying our best.”<\/p>\n
The national unemployment rate for people between 15 and 24 years old was 13.8 per cent in 2025 compared to 10.7 per cent in 2023, data from Statistics Canada shows<\/a>. In Manitoba,the rate rose from 9.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent<\/a> over the same period.<\/p>\n The post-pandemic surge in Canada’s youth unemployment rate has never been seen outside a recession and was even higher than rates seen during downturns in 1981, 1990 and 2008, according to a report by the Fraser Institute published in April.<\/p>\n “The youth labour market is behaving as if the overall economy \u2026 has entered a severe recession,” report author Philip Cross said in an interview on Information Radio. <\/p>\n “Yet we look at the overall economy \u2026 [and] the economy overall is not doing great, but it’s not in a recession either.”<\/p>\n The report says young Canadians spent on average nearly 16 weeks being unemployed, the longest jobless spell on record for that demographic since data began in 1997.<\/p>\n LISTEN | The search for summer jobs:<\/p>\n Information Radio – MB9:28The Young and the Jobless: Two 18-year-old’s searching for summer jobs<\/p>\n Kicking off “The Young and the Jobless”, Marcy Markusa speaks with Annabelle Dacey and Noa Monzon, two university students searching for jobs while the youth unemployment rate is the highest it’s been in 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n It says the 13.8 per cent youth unemployment rate in 2025 was nearly double the rest of Canada’s working age population, which had a 5.7 per cent unemployment rate.<\/p>\n “We let a lot of especially unskilled, uneducated youth into this country, which toughened up competition” for youth, Cross said. <\/p>\n “At the same time, provincial governments [have] substantially increased minimum wages over the last couple of decades, and that choked off demand.\u2026 Any economist would tell you if you substantially increase supply and, at the same time, substantially lower demand, you’re going to have a very bad outcome.”<\/p>\n Youth anxious about future: survey<\/p>\n A recent survey by non-profit Mental Health Research Canada found 82 per cent of Canadian youth feel stressed and anxious about the future of their careers, with 72 per cent also believing bigger forces out of their control will influence their financial future no matter how hard they work.<\/p>\n Youth in Saskatchewan and Manitoba were the most likely in the country to say they always feel stressed or anxious about the future of their careers, the report says.<\/p>\n “We are in a situation where we have this perfect storm of all of these pressures that, quite frankly, Canadians are facing, but they’re impacting youth even more,” said Akela Peoples, the non-profit’s CEO.<\/p>\n LISTEN | How unemployment impacts youth mental health:<\/p>\n Information Radio – MB6:30The impact of unemployment on mental health<\/p>\n The CBC’s Chloe Friesen joins guest host Cory Funk in the latest installment of our series, The Young and the Jobless. Chloe discusses the impact unemployment has on mental health — especially young people.<\/p>\n