Summer employment for Canadian students remained above pre-pandemic levels in June and employment for all youth was near a three-year high as employers struggled to find workers and wages rose.
Overall, the labor market shed 43,000 jobs, Statistics Canada said on fridaythe first drop unrelated to COVID-19 public health restrictions since late 2019.
Those restrictions, which have come in waves over the past two years, have had a disproportionate impact on younger workers, who make up a larger share of the workforce in retail, hospitality and other public-facing jobs as that businesses were closed or in restricted operations for months earlier in the pandemic.
The drop was likely due to employers being unable to find workers to hire rather than intentionally slowing down their hiring, RBC’s assistant chief economist said, noting that job postings are running nearly 70 percent above levels. pre-COVID and that the average number of hours worked increased in June.
“Virtually every industry is struggling with labor shortages,” Nathan Janzen wrote in a note, with demand for travel and hospitality returning “as the economic impact of the pandemic recedes, but where levels of staff are still well below pre-pandemic levels.”
The central bank could raise interest rates sharply next week in its continued effort to cool inflation, Janzen said, which would also likely slow economic growth and weaken the labor market for the rest of the year.
Akosua Alagaratnam, executive director of First Work youth employment network, said the job market currently provides an opportunity to help “those people who may need a little bit of support to find the right job, with the right employer” and that a imminent The recession should not leave the currently unemployed “further behind in labor market uncertainty”.
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Wages rose, on average, more than $1.50 an hour to $31.24, a 5.2 percent increase from a year earlier, the federal statistics agency said. They gained 3.9 percent in May, while inflation that month was 7.7 percent.
More than three-quarters of female students ages 20 to 24 were employed last month, the highest rate recorded for this group since comparable records were first kept in 1977. Their numbers in the labor force helped keep the overall employment rate among returning students aged 15-24. 24 more than three years earlier, in line with the momentum first seen in May.
In the three years since June 2019, an additional 14,000 students aged 20-24 became education workers (an increase of more than 70%) and a similar number (but only a 33% increase) became in health and social workers. aid workers, StatCan said.
Summer employment for Canadian students remained above pre-pandemic levels in June and employment for all youth was near a three-year high as employers struggled to find workers and wages rose.
The overall unemployment rate for all youth ages 15 to 24 fell 0.6 percentage point to 9.2 percent. It was down a full percentage point for young women at 7.1 percent and little changed for their male counterparts at 11.1 percent.
Morgan Sharp / Local Journalism Initiative / National Observer Canada