U.S. tariffs and a growing population to blame for lack of summer jobs for youth, expert says

CBC

6 days ago

Summer is here, and for many high school students that means it's time to lock down a summer job.
DiMarco Brown is a Grade 11 student from Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate. He's eager to work but that attitude hasn't yet landed him a job.
"It's really hard to be honest. I applied to like 20 jobs over the last year and ... I only got one reply... and it was a rejection," he said, adding that he wishes he had more family connections.
"It's hard unless you know someone that works in the business. I think it would be easy if you know someone that works at the place, but other than that, you just have to keep on calling back and having to beg for the attention."
Timothy Lang is the president and CEO of the job placement agency, Youth Employment Services. He says high school students are facing a tough job market this summer.
"Where they might have typically had to approach 20 or 30 opportunities to get an interview, now they're having to talk to hundreds," Lang said.
"It's more difficult this year than last year... we're hopeful that with the seasonal jobs coming on like landscaping and tourism, parks and rec and hospitality with patios and so on, that more jobs will open up."
Lang says one of the reasons there's more competition for summer jobs this year is the record number of new Canadians that moved to Canada.
"Long term it's good for the economy, creates even more jobs, but short term it puts more pressure [on the job market]," he said.
The impact of U.S. tariffs, or even the threat of them have also caused employers to hold back on the number of people they're hiring.
"Tariffs have put some uncertainty into businesses. They're uncertain of what's going to happen down the road," Lang said.
"Small business who might hire two people in the summer if they decide, 'OK, I'm going to hire just one.' And you expand that by thousands of small businesses, suddenly that's a 50 per cent drop in the number of hirings."
Achilles Goldaev, a Grade 12 student from Cameron Heights Collegiate, already has a head start. She's nabbed a co-op opportunity to help build her resume.
"Hopefully I'll be able to get a job," Goldaev said.
"[I'm open to] pretty much anything outside of food service ... I know that a lot of the time it's not always like the most hygienic. And I'd like to keep being able to buy fast food without knowing about all that."
Grade 12 Cameron Heights student Shreya Sooraj says she found part-time work as a cashier at a retail store in Conestoga Mall.
"I applied to five jobs a week and then I finally heard back in November from them," she said, adding that one of the big barriers is a lack of experience.
"I have some friends who have two or three jobs and other people just don't have any jobs."
Kareem El-Khatib, a Grade 9 student from Cameron Heights, finds inspiration at home. This year marks the first time he's ever applied for a job.
"My dad always goes to work and it's good that he makes money and I feel like I wanna make my own money," El-Khatib said, adding that he's open to any kind of job but is most interested in working as a cashier.
His classmate and friend Mustafa Abdaroa says he wants to become a family physician one day. He's already trying to build a resume with that goal in mind.
"I would like something like a part-time job, something a bit more interactive. I would like to work around people because it's very important to be able to work with different people [for a physician]."
Abdaroa says he's already typed up a resume and asked his older sisters to take a look at it to help him improve.
Fellow Grade 9 student Samuel Wu is one of the few students in his class to already have a job. It took him multiple years to get here.
"I'm an assistant lifeguard in the city of Cambridge right now," Wu said, adding that he had to first take a couple of courses before working his way up the ladder.