The kids are not alright: As summer jobs season opens, many businesses are still closed

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Elaine Bolen considers herself “very, very lucky” to have found a summer co-op — after all, it took almost 70 applications.

The 20-year-old business management student at Ryerson University in Toronto, who’s working in sales and marketing at a furniture manufacturing company this summer, was one of the only ones in her friend group to find a summer placement. The co-op portal for business students had far fewer postings than in previous years, and a torrent of students applied. After sending out numerous tailored cover letters, Bolen received just two calls from employers. Some of her friends put out around 100 applications and heard nothing back.

“The options were very slim to none for finding a summer job,” she said. “I find it really discouraging.”

High school and post-secondary students are facing a much tougher job market than pre-pandemic, due to business closures and uncertainties facing the retail, accommodation, food services, recreation and cultural sectors, which employ the majority of youth. A 42 per cent decline in employment from May 2019 in the business, building and other support services sector, which includes seasonal work like landscaping, also hit students hard, Statistics Canada said in its May labour force survey, released Friday.

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There were 177,000, or almost 16 per cent, fewer students between the ages of 15 and 24 employed this May than in May 2019. Still, students’ summer employment is off to a better start than last year: The unemployment rate for students last month was 23.1 per cent — well down from last May’s 40 per cent, when businesses were reeling from the early stages of the pandemic.

“Student employment and youth employment overall are experiencing a concentrated version of the overall challenges facing the labour market,” said Brendon Bernard, senior economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, who focuses on the Canadian labour market. “While things look better than they did at this time last year, it’s not surprising to see the struggles.”

Oliver Bowes is among those struggling. The 14-year-old grade nine student in Oakville, Ont., has been on the hunt for his first real summer job for a month, but hasn’t heard back from any of the grocery stores he applied to.

The options were very slim to none for finding a summer job

Elaine Bolen

“There’s just so much competition because the university students are home now and COVID has made it a lot more difficult — there are obviously less jobs available so university students who used to work as waiters can no longer do that,” said Bowes, adding that many of his friends have had similar experiences.

The job landscape could change quickly. With many provinces in the reopening phases as vaccination rates climb, Bernard said he’s awaiting June’s job numbers to see “quick wins” for hard-hit retail, restaurant and personal care businesses. “I hope to see that translate into nice gains for the youth job market, which has had a tough time since the start of the pandemic.”

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Unemployment hasn’t hit Canadian youth equally. Female students were twice as far from their May 2019 employment levels than male students. Young women between the ages of 20 and 24 — including current students and those not in school — experienced a decline in employment of 4.3 per cent in May, or 33,000 jobs. “Certain industries of the economy that employ more men are doing a bit better than some of the areas that younger women work in,” Bernard said.

In the face of rising unemployment, young women aged 17 to 24 have also enrolled in postsecondary school at a higher rate than a year ago — rising to 53 per cent from 48 per cent for women aged 17 to 19; and to 50 per cent from 46 per cent for women aged 20 to 24, StatsCan said in a late-May report. Enrolment for young men remained virtually unchanged.

“A number of young women are turning to education and basically saying, ‘look, the economy’s bad, this is my chance to invest in myself,’ with the hopes that they’ll have a better outcome once the economy returns,” said Sarah Kaplan, director of the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

The jobs report revealed another stark disparity: Students who were part of a visible minority group had an employment rate of about 32 per cent, far below the 45 per cent employment rate for those who are not.

Kaplan said she worries about the long-term implications for young people, especially women and people of colour who are currently unemployed and unable to advance their careers, or taking on extra debt for further education. “That’s going to have a massive impact on their lifetime earnings,” she said.

“I think we have to not only think about what is unemployment now, but what does it mean for the long-term financial, economic well-being of women, people of colour, as the years progress?”

Financial Post

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