Feds announce up to 6,000 more Canada Summer Jobs as youths struggle to find work

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu announced Friday day the national authorities is creating up to 6,000 much spots successful the Canada Summer Jobs programme for young radical — a determination that comes arsenic galore conflict to find work.

"This is precocious breaking news, but I deliberation ace important to beryllium capable to assistance with the benignant of urgency this summer," Hajdu said successful an interrogation with CBC's The House airing Saturday morning.

According to a quality release, the national authorities is reallocating $25 cardinal from Employment and Social Development Canada to make the other 6,000 jobs. The merchandise besides said CSJ was "on track" to make 70,000 jobs for youths this summer.

The unemployment complaint for radical betwixt 15 and 24 years aged has steadily ticked upward, according to Statistics Canada. In January 2023, the seasonally adjusted unemployment complaint successful this property radical was 10 per cent. In May 2025, it was 14.2 per cent.

Mel Purchase, a 19-year-old from Alliston, Ont., said she's been driving astir submitting her resumé to temp agencies "and conscionable anticipation for the best, and anticipation they tin fig thing retired to assistance me."

Purchase said her perfect occupation would beryllium moving successful a mill to physique toward her imagination vocation successful welding, but "every azygous idiosyncratic is looking for work."

She told The House she's trying to enactment positive, but "it's a small spot stressful trying to fig everything retired and trying to plan, particularly due to the fact that of conscionable however costly everything is and erstwhile again, the full hiring crisis."

"It sucks. Just trying implicit and implicit and implicit again to get a occupation oregon conscionable immoderate benignant of income is precise hard," Purchase said.

Hajdu said the authorities is looking to physique projects crossed Canada quickly, which requires much tradespeople. Because of that, it volition beryllium "heavily investing" successful opportunities for young radical to amended their skills if they're funny successful going into the trades.

Canada Summer Jobs provides wage subsidies to enactment employers successful creating summertime enactment experiences for those betwixt the ages of 15 and 30 years old.

Riley Locke, a 25-year-old postgraduate pupil astatine Toronto Metropolitan University, told The House helium needed to implicit a summertime internship betwixt the archetypal and 2nd twelvemonth of his master's successful municipality planning, but the acquisition was "frustrating."

Locke, who submitted hundreds of applications since January, spoke with big Catherine Cullen a week earlier helium yet landed a job. In a follow-up interview, helium said he's relieved but "it's hard not to consciousness similar it's beauteous overmuch conscionable luck of the draw."

"I had my just stock of truly stressful days wherever I had received a rejection email," Locke said.

What's to blame?

Ilona Dougherty, co-creator of the Youth & Innovation Project astatine the University of Waterloo, said Purchase and Locke's experiences of sending retired countless resumés with nary luck is precisely what she's been proceeding for good implicit a year.

"Unfortunately, young radical are the canary successful the ember mine," Dougherty said.

She added there's presently an "incredibly analyzable economical situation" connected apical of different challenging factors similar expanding usage of AI and a ample fig of impermanent overseas workers.

Locke said the occupation exertion process tin sometimes consciousness demeaning and dehumanizing due to the fact that immoderate companies usage AI to benignant done applications.

He added it becomes a "guessing game" to fig retired "whether I request to beryllium penning for a quality oregon penning for a robot."

Dougherty said Canada needs to "fundamentally rethink what entry-level jobs are going to look similar for young people" if it wants a workforce that is not economically disengaged successful 5 to 10 years.

"AI is simply a bid barrelling down the tracks, but we're surely not going to halt it. We request to marque definite young radical are prepared," Doughty said. She besides referenced a New York Times impermanent effort from a LinkedIn enforcement who wrote that AI is breaking the "bottom rung of the vocation ladder."

In precocious May, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani launched a petition to extremity the impermanent overseas idiosyncratic programme and cited younker unemployment arsenic 1 crushed why.

Dougherty said the concern is "a batch much analyzable than [Jivani] presents it to be," but she added determination is grounds that wages depress erstwhile companies trust connected impermanent overseas workers alternatively than paying a young Canadian.

"It's not conscionable astir stopping migration of each kinds and this volition magically hole the problem. But surely we person to marque definite that companies are paying due wages for those entry-level roles. That's perfectly critical," she said.

"We request to truly instrumentality this earnestly and put successful young people.… It's up to the adults. This is not the young people's fault, and we request to hole the problem."