If you’ve got a teenager moping around the house this summer because they couldn’t find a job, it’s probably not their fault.
The employment rate for students planning to return to school in the fall has hit its lowest point in over two decades, according to recent data from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.
This summer, only 46.8% of students aged 15 to 24 found employment, marking the lowest rate since June 1998, excluding the pandemic-affected year of 2020.
This represents a significant decrease from June 2022, when the employment rate for this group was 53.7%. The data highlights a growing challenge for students seeking summer jobs.
Unemployment among returning students also rose sharply, with 15.9% of these young workers unable to find jobs in June 2024. This figure is 3.8 percentage points higher than it was a year ago.
The decline in employment was observed across both genders. The employment rate for male returning students fell to 44.4%, a decrease of 5.5 percentage points from June 2023. Female returning students experienced a similar trend, with 49.0% employed in June, down 4.4 percentage points from the previous year.
Part-time work continues to be the most common type of employment among these students. In June 2024, 68.0% of employed returning students worked part-time, up from 66.9% in June 2023 and 63.9% in June 2022.
The findings underscore the ongoing difficulties faced by young Canadians in the labour market, particularly as they seek temporary employment during the summer months.