What can be done to address the youth unemployment crisis in Ontario?

Photo Credit: Paul Box/reportdigital.co.uk

Statistics Canada reported today that the average unemployment rate for students aged 15 to 24 this past summer was 17.2%, which is a rise from the unemployment rate of 16.9% reported for the summer of 2010 (in the three summers prior to the recession the unemployment rate for youth never surpassed 14%). These statistics reflects a broader crisis in youth unemployment in Canada that has existed since the start of the recession in 2008. Historically, students and young people have generally fared poorly during periods of economic recession since the 1970s.

Little is being done by policy makers to address problematic trend, either in terms of assessing the dimension of the problem or mapping out policy solutions that could partially alleviate the deteriorating youth labour market.  Overall the lack of a response from government reinforces the argument that many public policy decisions in Canada since the 1980's have been underscored by a broader strategic abandonment of young people. Poignant examples of such include: downloading the costs of post-secondary education onto students and families, a lack of regulatory responses to precarious employment relationships such as internships or contract work and denying the millennial generation any measure of workplace democracy through the rusting of workplace laws.

While one might think that this would be an excellent area for politicians to implement innovative policy that would assist the next generation of workers, nothing is currently being proposed by any of the three major parties that explicitly addresses the youth unemployment crisis in Ontario. Neither the Liberals, the NDP or the Tories are advancing any policy solutions to address the structural labour market barriers that youth face while entering the workforce. Unless a politician is extolling the benefits of education, young people are generally left out of policy discussions and don't seem to figure into fixes for job creation. Which is a bizarre state of affairs as young people have the most to offer Ontario's economy both now and going forward into the future.

There are a variety of responses that policy makers could implement to address the youth unemployment crisis. First Work has put forward a very modest proposal for investing in the current system of youth employment centres. This would be an excellent start in rebuilding the ability with the province to properly assist and respond to the needs of young people transitioning into the labour market. Beyond this there are certainly policy solutions available through targeted tax credits, paid internship programs, dismantling information asymmetries, greater enforcement of employment standards and updated workplace laws to discourage situations where young people are exploited by employers and greater coordination between post-secondary institutions and government to ensure there's a basic level of labour market planning occurring. The solutions exist and what's needed now are policy makers willing to take the necessary steps to properly address the structural labour market barriers that presently exist for youth.