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Canada's youth bearing the brunt of a tough labour market, says Statistics Canada
Younger Canadians continue to struggle with difficult labour market conditions, according to Statistics Canada.
In a new economic report released on April 22, entitled “Recent developments in the Canadian economy: Spring 2026,” StatCan says labour market conditions worsened for youth in early 2026.
“After contracting by 23,000 (jobs) at the end of 2025, youth employment fell by 64,000 in January and February,” states the report. “The unemployment rate among 15- to-24 year-olds edged back above 14 percent in February, while the percentage of youth who were employed fell to 53.7 %.”
This followed a challenging 2025 summer. The unemployment rate among 15- to 24-year-olds then rose to 14 . 6 per cent in September. It was the highest unemployment rate for Canada’s youth since September 2010, aside from the COVID pandemic, says StatCan.
There was a brief respite in the fall but by the end of 2025, the national youth unemployment rate was still 13.3 per cent. It was worse in Ontario, where the year-end rate sat at 15.6 per cent.
This bleak picture for Canada’s youth is set against the first two months of 2026, when the overall labour market suffered cumulative employment losses of 109,000, according to StatCan. Over half of those cumulative losses were in full-time work, and all of the net decrease was among private sector employees.
“Employment among core-age workers fell by 62,000 during the first two months of the year. Net losses during January and February were concentrated in Ontario and Quebec,” reports StatCan.
The overall unemployment rate fell slightly at the end of 2025 to 6.8 per cent, after edging above seven percent last August and September. The percentage of employed working-age people was 60.9 per cent in December after declining to a four-year low of 60.5 per cent in August
StatCan noted the adverse impact of escalating trade tensions on hiring in 2025. “From January to August, the job-finding rate—the proportion of job seekers who found work from one month to the next—averaged 18.1%, substantially below the average rate of 21.0% reported during the first eight months of 2024.”
This improved slightly in the fall months, when the job-finding rate was more aligned with the levels reported in the same months before the trade disruption.
However, the rates of long-term unemployment remained elevated throughout 2025, says StatCan.
“Among the 1.55 million people who were unemployed in December 2025, 21.9% were experiencing long-term unemployment, continuously searching for work for 27 weeks or more … Since mid-2024, the share of unemployed people experiencing long-term unemployment has been substantially above levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In December 2025, there were 505,900 vacant positions, a decrease of 29,100 over the previous year.
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