Question Period Note: HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA SUPPORTING YOUTH TO GAIN THE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE THEY NEED TO SUCCESSFULLY ENTER AND STAY IN THE LABOUR MARKET?

An article published in the Globe and Mail on February 15, 2024, indicated that young people are bearing the brunt of labour market slow downs and that it is driving them out of the work force.

Good jobs open a world of possibilities for a better future.

This government recognizes the value that youth and students bring to the labour market and has made significant investment to ensure they continue to be supported.

To help youth better prepare for success at work, in 2023-2024, the Government is looking to create over 130,000 opportunities through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program, Canada Summer Jobs and the Student Work Placement Program.

These investments will continue into 2024-2025, where another 130,000 opportunities will be created through these programs.

An investment in our youth is a down payment on Canada’s future.

If Pressed (mandate commitment)

The Government is on track to deliver on its mandate commitment to continue scaling up youth and student skills and employment programming.

The Government has a mandate commitment to continue scaling up youth and student skills and employment programming and initiatives for Canadian youth. The main levers to deliver on this commitment are the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS), which includes the YESS Program and Canada Summer Jobs; and the Student Work Placement Program.

While youth were significantly impacted by the pandemic, they have made a strong recovery. By September 2021 their participation rate had returned to pre-pandemic, while their employment and unemployment rates reached recovery in October 2021, their unemployment rate sitting 0.9 percentage points lower than pre-pandemic (9.5% vs.10.4%). Moreover, by mid-2022, youth were also at or close to their record-low unemployment rate of 9.3% (June & July 2022).

However, recent labour market trends show that gains made by youth are softening as they generally continue to face some challenges:

In January 2024, the labour force participation rate—the number of people who are either employed or unemployed as a percentage of the population aged 15 and older—fell 0.2 percentage points to 65.3%.

On a year-over-year basis, the labour force participation rate has fallen more steeply among youth aged 15 to 24. In January 2024, the youth labour force participation rate was down 3.0 percentage points to 62.7% compared with 65.6% in January 2023. In comparison, in January 2024, the labour force participation rate was down 0.3 percentage points to 88.6% for the population aged 25 to 54 and was little changed at 36.8% for the population aged 55 and older.

The downward trend in the overall youth labour force participation rate was accompanied by an increase in the youth unemployment rate, which rose 1.1 percentage points to 10.8% in the 12 months to January 2024.

In comparison, the unemployment rate for those over the age of 25 was 4.8% in January 2024, an increase of only 0.6 percentage points from January 2023.

Additionally, many youth from under-represented groups (e.g., youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black and other racialized youth groups, etc.) face higher unemployment rates than their peers. For example:

In January 2024, the unemployment rate for Black youth aged 15-24 was 18.4%.

In January 2024, the unemployment rate for visible minority youth aged 15-24 was 12.7%.

In January 2024, the unemployment rate for Indigenous youth aged 15-24 was 14.1% (3 month moving average).

Youth are also facing socio-economic challenges. Reporting by Statistics Canada indicates that about 30% of 15 to 24 years old reported difficulty making ends meet and that youth are spending more of their income on housing than older age groups. It also indicated that Canadian youth are less satisfied and less hopeful about the future.

Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS)

The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) consists of two program streams, the YESS Program and Canada Summer Jobs.

The YESS is a horizontal initiative delivered by 12 federal government departments, agencies and Crown Corporations to support the successful transition of youth into the labour market through access to skills, training, employment opportunities and wrap-around supports, with a focus on under-represented youth facing barriers.

The 2023 Employment and Social Development Canada YESS Program Call for Proposals closed in November 2023. It will provide eligible organizations with over $300 million in funding over four years, starting in 2024-2025 to help improve labour market outcomes for up to 20,000 youth facing barriers to employment. It also includes a new stream designed to address the unique barriers to employment encountered by youth with disabilities.  

Canada Summer Jobs, delivered solely by Employment and Social Development Canada, provides wage subsidies to employers from not-for-profit organizations, the public-sector, and private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees, to create quality summer work experiences (from April to August) for young people aged 15 to 30 years.

The Canada Summer Jobs 2024 Call for Applications closed in January 2024. The program is set to support another 70,000 opportunities this summer, aligning with 2023 job targets.

The Government’s investment is delivering results for youth. For example, a mid-cycle assessment found that April 2020 to December 2022, 81% of ESDC YESS Program participants had returned to school or were in employment after participation.

The 2022 Fall Economic Statement allocated $802.1 million over 3 years starting in 2022-23 for the YESS:

$301.4 million over two years, starting in 2023-24, through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program;

$400.5 million over two years, starting in 2023-2024, to Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements; and,

$100.2 million over three years, starting in 2022-2023, to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.

Student Work Placement (SWP) Program

The Student Work Placement (SWP) Program supports partnerships for the creation of work-integrated learning opportunities for students of all ages enrolled in any post-secondary education program at a college, university, or polytechnic in Canada.

The SWP Program helps post-secondary students to develop work-ready skills, employers to recruit and develop talent, and post-secondary institutions to adapt to changing labour market needs.

Work-integrated learning opportunities help post-secondary students to bring together academic learning and applied work experience. This can include, but is not limited to co-ops, internships, and mentorship programs, as well as shorter duration opportunities such as hackathons and micro-internships.

Budget 2023 provides $197.7 million in 2024-2025 to the SWP Program to continue creating quality work-integrated learning opportunities for students through partnerships between employers and post-secondary education institutions.

Between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023, the Program has consistently exceeded targets by supporting the creation of over 190,000 opportunities for post-secondary students across all provinces and territories.

In 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, the Program will support the creation of 40,000 work-integrated learning opportunities per year across various sectors nationwide.

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