OTTAWA—A new study from Statistics Canada about the precarious position young workers find themselves in—and how little it has changed in four decades—has refocused attention on the federal government’s push to create jobs for youth.
The review of decades of employment figures found that young people have seen their job quality decline over 40 years, even as the unemployment rate has remained relatively unchanged: The youth unemployment rate in both 1976 and 2015 was 2.3 times higher than the rate among those aged 25 and older.
In the report, the national statistics office said fewer young Canadians, who are not full-time students, are working in full-time jobs today than in 1976, a result driven mainly by the rise of part-time work rather than increases in unemployment rates or decreases in labour force participation.
The numbers mirror what the expert panel on youth employment has been hearing during their work.
Vass Bednar, who chairs the panel, says she has heard issues ranging from the role of governments at all levels in job creation, to the changing business landscape that gives rise to more part-time and temporary work, to workers who worry that putting their home address on an application may show them to be from a poorer part of town and dissuade employers from hiring them.
