This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Philip Cross, August 21, 2025
Young people have borne the brunt of the recent deterioration in Canada’s labour market. Youth unemployment usually runs at about twice the rate for adults, reflecting young workers’ lower productivity and inexperience at searching for a job. But now it’s nearly three times the rate for adults, which puts it at “crisis levels” according to some commentators.
The likely cause of this crisis? Government programs that have raised the minimum wage and sharply increased the supply of low-skilled foreign workers.
The unemployment rate for those between 15 and 24 years of age shot up 5.4 percentage points from its recent low of 9.2 per cent in March 2023 to 14.6 per cent in July 2025. Over the same period unemployment for those 25 years and older rose just 1.3 points, from just 4.4 per cent to 5.7 per cent.
The rise in their unemployment does not fully convey the deterioration of labour market conditions for young people, however. Disappearing job opportunities discouraged many from even looking for a job, which means they aren’t counted as either in the labour force or unemployed. Moreover, in July a majority of those who did have jobs were in part-time, not full-time work, only the second month that’s ever happened outside the 2020 COVID pandemic.
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Philip Cross is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute
