More than a third of university students can’t find jobs this summer. Nova Scotia in particular has the highest youth unemployment rates of all the provinces.
The employment rate for youth, aged 15-24, during the summer months in Canada has fallen 4.2 percentage points since June 2011 and is currently at 63.2 percent. This is the lowest June employment recorded since Statistics Canada started polling in 1977. Though employment rates for this category rose in June 2010 and then stayed the same in June 2011, they are now lower than they were before the recovery from the recession during June 2009.
Students applying for jobs can see employers hold the power. Complaints are piling up.
Issues with employer-stolen gratuities and unpaid training are popping up on threads on Reddit. People looking for waitng jobs can’t find them because servers with less than three to five years of experience “need not apply.”
Students who have year-round jobs are finding their hours cut as businesses cut costs. Employers are also taking care of their own, as it is common to hear of family/friends being hired over qualified people.
For Nicole Cooper, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, factors that may influence high unemployment are that businesses are slowing in the summer, students are leaving Halifax for the summer and the fact that employers want to hire the bare minimum of staff required and/or year-round full-time staff.
In this economy, students have to take any employment opportunities they can get and are fighting over the chance to flip burgers at McDonald’s. Meanwhile the rate of employment for people aged 55 and over has risen to 39.4 percent for men and 28.6 percent for women. With people staying in their jobs longer, young people are seemingly waiting for the retirement of the baby-boomers for subsistence jobs to open up.
Seniors can’t retire and youth can’t find jobs. Everyone loses.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.
Yup, this has been clearly evident to me.
I’m a couple years over the ’15-24′ bracket listed.. but I am a full time student in Halifax, so it applies just the same. If you weren’t already working at least part time during the academic year, it seems you’re out of luck. You have to fight with those that are networked into everything, or the older folks that have X years of experience, which the employers demand, just because they can.
Still, I pound the streets and the job boards and hold out some hope. I may be too optimistic though.. this is Atlantic Canada after all.
I’d be interested to see if it’s a matter for fewer jobs to be had, or more students sticking around Halifax for the summer competing for the same number of jobs.
It can be hard. I know when I was there I worked seasonally (Sept.-June) and it was damn hard to find something for the summer.
I am a 21 year old Dal student and went home to Moncton for the summer. It took me from march till the second week of June to finally find a summer job! Luckily I found one specifically for a student, otherwise I fear I may still be looking! It’s crazy the student unemployment rate, I just hope tge students are offered enough financial aid to make up for the lack of jobs and are able to pay for this school year!
i had no problem at all, i worked at mcdonalds and worked 20 hours a week during the “school year” at any time that could of jumped up to full time hours