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Youth unemployment isn’t just a summer problem

scanning: author: from: time:2024-11-15 classify:新闻1
Last July under idyllic summer conditions, the...

Last July under idyllic summer conditions, the Canadian National Exhibition received a record number of visitors. The gate-crashing crowds didn’t come to fawn over farm animals or catch 

an airshow.


Rather, more than 37,000 people – nearly double the number from the year before – showed up for the CNE Job Fair hoping for one of 5,000 positions such as short-order cooks, retail 

associates, and cashiers.


The numbers speak to a particularly bleak situation facing young job hunters: the unemployment rate for students averaged 16.7 per cent from May to August, up significantly from the 

previous year. The situation was even more challenging for specific groups: 22.8 per cent of immigrant youth were unemployed, while the unemployment rate for Black students was 29.5 

per cent, a dramatic increase from 2023.


A sluggish economy has increased competition for fewer jobs, and young people generally lack experience. These are two of the many complex reasons why young people are facing a

 difficult job market.


But for many young people, the need for a job doesn’t end when the academic year begins. Approximately 43 per cent of full-time students aged 15 to 29 work part-time during the school 

year.


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Employers, policymakers and funders who support young people and youth-employment programs must do more to respond to this reality by addressing youth unemployment in such a way 

that recognizes that it is a year-round challenge and acknowledging that young people need support even once they have found work.


There are long-term consequences when young people have difficulty finding work or don’t have meaningful work at the beginning of their career.


The public and private sector must demonstrate that they are prioritizing the needs of young people and are helping to foster new opportunities for them.


A loss of work-integrated learning opportunities

Work-integrated learning helps young people combine academic studies with experience in a workplace or practical setting. But many of them have less access to work-integrated learning 

opportunities today than they did prior to when the pandemic began in 2020.


This is one of the initial findings from the RBC Young People and Economic Inclusion Longitudinal Study, which is running from 2022 to 2028. These findings are shared in our new report Facing 

challenges, finding opportunity: Young people in Canada navigating a new employment reality.


In other words, the kind of short, intensive opportunities for young people to gain much- needed work experience have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels of availability for young people.


Business, academia and government must prioritize investment in work-integrated learning to ensure that all young people, especially those from diverse backgrounds, have an opportunity to take

 part.