ATHABASCA — Summer has officially arrived in Alberta, and for many students and young adults, the sunny season means it’s time to look for a summer job. But with the youth unemployment rate approaching heights not seen since the early ’90s, securing work for the season and beyond is getting tougher for young Canadians.
Across the country, 11.2 per cent of youth between 15 and 24 with post-secondary education are currently unemployed, the highest rate since 1994 when youth unemployment hit 14.2 per cent, aside from the COVID-19 pandemic.
But young job-seekers in rural Alberta have a leg up on their counterparts in urban settings, according to Trina Smith, program manager at Prospect Human Resources, an Edmonton-based employment service.
“Calgary and Edmonton, we’re oversaturated in the market here,” said Smith.
“We’re trying to encourage folks to stay in their smaller communities where there’s more camaraderie, there’s more opportunities for networking and personal growth and advocacy, because that small town feel just puts a different spin on what you can accomplish with a career path.”
Prospect offers a range of no-cost employment help for all Albertans looking for work, including virtual skill-building workshops, application and job search support, and more. And this year, the team is expanding their Youth Apprenticeship Connections program beyond the city limits to help youth aged 16-24, particularly those supported by Children’s Services.
“It’s so important for us to intervene with these young folks who are coming from care or who are currently in care, because there’s just limited awareness of the amount of resources available,” said Smith.
“The system has a crazy amount of resources, but how to find it, how to attach to the right ones can be really challenging when you don’t have that advocacy or role model walking alongside you.”
After running the youth apprenticeship program in Edmonton for more than a year, Prospect was given more funds from the provincial government to expand its services to the rest of Alberta to address labour market trends unfolding across the province and country.
“We’ve definitely found that youth in general are struggling to attach to the workforce,” said Smith. “I actually grew up in Athabasca and was able to get my first job at the local A&W, and that’s so much harder to do that for young people now.”
“Especially in these rural areas in the northern region, a lot of youth seem to face additional challenges around that transportation piece, how to get to and from the workplace, housing stability — we’ve seen that can be a really big challenge. There are lots of folks who need to couch surf or live with friends, or stay at home for longer.”
Smith credits many of the recent changes in the labour market to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. While certain industries thrived on remote work, others had to cut costs and shorten staff rosters, and the bounce back in the years since has been a tough climb for many businesses.
“I’ve been in the industry delivering employment support since 2009, and seeing (the labour market) in this capacity, it’s mind-boggling to see how much it’s changed just from something like a crazy world-changing pandemic. It’s pretty wild.”
Economic experts Mikal Skuterud, Christoper Worswick, and Mike Moffat, professors at Waterloo, Carleton, and Western Universities respectively, point to changes to the federal Temporary Worker Program seen after COVID-19 as driving factors behind the high rates of youth unemployment.
In 2022, the federal government increased the number of temporary foreign workers certain industries like food service and retail could employ from 10 per cent of the workforce to 20 per cent, and later to 30 per cent.
In 2024, these caps were lowered back down to 10 per cent, and applications to the low-wage program stream from areas with unemployment rates of six per cent or higher are automatically ineligible, as per regulations in place before the pandemic.
“Our government has absolutely capitalized on the changing immigration patterns that, of course, affect that labour supply and demand in the workforce diversity,” said Smith.
Prospect’s expansion of the youth apprenticeship program is geared towards setting youth up with experience in the trades, and while trade industries haven’t been as hard hit by an influx of temporary workers as the food and retail sectors, Smith said it has impacted job availability.
“A lot of immigrant individuals are receiving those opportunities, which is fantastic to continue to provide companies with a diverse workforce, but it does stifle some of our local young people who deserve and need that chance as well.”
Despite the increased competition and decreased job availability in recent years, Smith said youth hoping to live and work outside Alberta’s urban centres are at an advantage.
“Rather than encouraging young people to finish up any educational pathway that they're on and immediately want to relocate to our big metro cities like Calgary and Edmonton, we’re trying to encourage them (to stay rural).”
“We can find you something in Lac La Biche, Bonnyville, St. Paul, Slave Lake. There’s lot of great communities with amazing businesses who do have an appetite and really want to help young folks get a leg up in their career journey.”
In addition to using Prospect’s extensive employer database, Smith and team are hoping to partnering with trade training institutions around the province such as Portage College and Northern Lakes College to work on meeting the forecasted industry demand in the coming years, largely due to a dip in industry interest and a high rate of anticipated retirements.
“A lot of folks just stopped going into the trades and didn’t see the benefit, especially with some of the ups and downs in the economic system,” said Smith. “We’re trying to get back to it and help more people get attached to a really lucrative career path where you can sustain yourself.”
For more information on Prospect’s youth apprenticeship program and other employment resources, visit prospectnow.ca.
