Youth Unemployment in Ontario
September 27, 2013
Five years after the global economic meltdown, youth employment levels remain significantly depressed, tracking much lower than the national average.
Among the report’s key findings:
- In 2013, the unemployment rate for Ontario youth aged 15-24 fluctuated between 16% and 17.1%, trending above the Canadian range of 13.5% to 14.5% and placing Ontario as the worst province outside Atlantic Canada for high youth unemployment.
- The employment gap between youth and older workers in Ontario is now at an all-time high, with only one in two youth fortunate enough to be holding down a paying job.
- Windsor, Oshawa, Brantford and London stand out as youth unemployment hotspots: their youth unemployment rate is over 20%, similar to the European Union rates.
- Toronto’s youth employment rate – the measure that determines how many youth actually have jobs – is 43.5%. That’s the worst employment rate of any Ontario region and it may be driving some youth out of the province in search of work.
- Toronto also gets the prize for having the largest gap between youth and adult employment in the province, at 21.8%. That’s the highest it’s ever been.
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