Youth unemployment in Canada : Chômage des jeunes au Canada : bousculer les idées reçues

Recognizing the importance of the issue of youth unemployment and underemployment, CGA-Canada sees it timely to critically examine the level of hardship associated with youth unemployment and the presence of youth underemployment in the Canadian economy. [...] As such, what may seem to be an assertive expansion of the older workers’ presence in the labour market is, in fact, a mere re ection of the changes in the composition of the Canadian population: a er all, the growth in employment of older workers did not exceed the growth in this group’s population (Table 1). [...] For instance, if the same occupations are viewed as desired by job searchers of di erent ages, qualities and characteristics of one of the age groups the astounding success may be consistently more attractive to employers compared to the traits of the of older workers in the other age group. [...] Occupational preferences of workers and employers can become apparent through the proportion of workers employed in the occupation, the dynamic of the unemployment rate and the growth in employment in that occupation. [...] As the issue of youth unemployment does not present a particularly strong concern, the attention in the balance of the report is accorded to the issue of youth underemployment.