Daily BrewNew grads squeezed between soft job market and rising tuition fees
It seems now is not a good time to be looking for a job in Canada.
CBC reports that 54,500 jobs were lost in the month of March alone. That’s pretty daunting to hear when you are a newly-graduated student ready to enter the job market. There haven’t been numbers like this since we were in the midst of an economic recession four or five years ago.
The statistics speak for themselves — it leaves little hope for post-secondary students when they hear that opportunities will be slim once they graduate. Add to that the ever-climbing tuition fees in Ontario, and the picture becomes even bleaker.
On Thursday Brad Duguid, the Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, released a new tuition fee framework that will continue to allow tuition fees to increase. Duguid claims that the framework will balance the heavy financial load on students with the financial needs of post-secondary institutions.
[ More Brew: Saskatchewan sending unadoptable black dogs to B.C. ]
Youth unemployment has long been a problem in Canada. According to the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada:
Youth in Canada (and in many other countries) has always experienced harder labour market conditions and a higher unemployment rate compared to that of workers of other age groups. The situation did not change much during and after the most recent recession when the youth unemployment rate reached its 10-year peak of 15.2% in 2009.
While the government refuses to meet the tuition freeze that countless student groups are advocating for, the reality is that it seems there will be no clear-cut resolution to this rapidly growing problem in the near future.
And as a result, the combination of high tuition fees and a bleak job market creates a fresh batch of incredibly stressed Canadian twenty-somethings.
