Student employment increases across Canada

Though the memory of Visa bills from buying ‘interview appropriate clothes,’ tears of frustration and ink-stained hands from printing numerous resumes are still fresh in the minds of many youths across Canada, youth employment across the country has actually taken a turn for the better.

According to Stats Canada, youth employment is on the rise this year, pushing the unemployment rate down by 0.2 per cent this past September to 7.1 per cent, which, according to their Labour Force Survey, is the lowest rate since December 2008.

Though the labour increase has not occurred in all areas of employment, increases were notably seen across Canada.

However, Zachery Dayler, national director of Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) reminds students,

“While [employment] may be increasing, it’s been increasing from being an [already] poor situation is really what I’m getting at. Students are still struggling to find jobs in the summer to pay tuition, and even during the year, struggling to find reasonable quality jobs.”

Though this may be the case, stats from around Canada do point towards an increase in employment.

Service in British Columbia rose by 6.7 per cent in September.

Unemployment in Quebec fell by 0.3 percentage points to 7.3 per cent. Compared with September 2010, employment increased by 0.6 per cent.

Ontario employment was little changed for the second consecutive month and the unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent. Over the past 12 months, employment increased by 2.0 per cent above the national growth rate of 1.7 per cent.

However, this small step does not mean it isn’t a significant one.

Jan Basso, director of co-operative education and career development at Wilfrid Laurier University, said in a statement that 252 organizations were at the Career Fair held by WLU in late September and that they hadn’t seen more than 200 organizations at the fair since 2008.

According to the 2010 Graduate Survey results at Laurier, the total number of graduates at Laurier was 33,662.

Of these students, 95.4 per cent of them found job placements, and only 4.6 per cent were considered ‘unemployed’(survey response rate was 72.55).

“Obviously,” Dayler said, “I think it’s important to recognize that with that degree, with that education, your earning potential will increase.

“We are facing a labour shortage but those jobs will exist. It’s just a problem of that immediate time after students graduate.”