Youth unemployment has consistently been a problem for the last three decades in Canada and it's part of a global epidemic that has yet to be addressed by policy makers (here's an ILO Report on the global dimensions of the issue). Young people are the segment of the population hardest hit when the economy takes a nosedive. The reasons behind this long-term trend are complex and can be in part traced to: the end of mandatory retirement, the impact of globalization, demographics trends, the decline of the standard employment relationship, and the rapid rise of precarious employment. The effects of youth unemployment are enormous: life's milestones like marriage are delayed, twenty-somethings can't afford to leave their parents homes, massive debt in incurred in pursuit of degree that have increasingly questionable value, and entry into the paid labour force is put off for years.
I'm going to write a longer post exploring this issue soon, but until then I wanted to share a couple things with you. The first is an article from the Toronto Star's Moneyville blog that explores how the labour market recovery hasn't reached young people. The second is a report from Scotiabank that discusses the youth labour market (see page 14), the decline of summer jobs, and the impact from an 8-fold increase in tuition fees since the 1980s. The Scotiabank report also raises a possible connection between unpaid internships and the high youth unemployment rate, a link which I've raised before as a unintended consequence of the deregulation of the labour market by government. I'll leave everyone with a question to ponder: what should the policy response(s) of government be on the issue of youth unemployment? If you have any thoughts feel free to email me.
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