By Melanie Nava Urribarri
This summer, some university students entered “survival mode” as they struggled to find jobs amid the lowest student employment rates in 26 years.
With a 3.8 per cent increase in unemployed Canadians over the past year, the unemployment rate of returning students in the country hit 15.9 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. This is the highest unemployment Canada has seen since June 1998.
“When you think a lot about money, your brain will automatically be in survivor mode,” said Savannah Phan, a third-year marketing management student at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).
For some students, the stress of money pushes them to their limit. “I got insomnia [thinking] about money,” she said.
According to a report on regional unemployment rates by Statistics Canada, as of August 2024, Toronto has seen little movement in its high unemployment rate as it held at 8.1 per cent since last June.
Along with the unemployment data recently released by Statistics Canada, the number of employees receiving pay and benefits from their employers measured as “payroll enrolment” decreased by 0.3 per cent in June of this year.
“I don’t even think students realize how bad it is,” said Eric Kam, a professor and associate chair of the International Economics and Finance Undergraduate program at TMU.
“I think the [statistics] are lower than the truth…What the government can do is manipulate the statistics,” said Kam.
For example, he explained how the government doesn’t differentiate between part-time and full-time work, “we know in reality…many people that are part-time employed would like to be full-time employed. But they can’t. There’s no jobs.”
For some students, this causes troubling emotions.
“It was hard not to feel like I was doing something wrong because even though I had the qualifications, nobody was looking at me, which is stressful,” said Tatem Mackey, a 2024 TMU media production alumna.
As time went on, Mackey said she felt worse and worse about herself.
Similar to Mackey, Jessica Sharkey, a fourth-year professional communications student at TMU, also struggled with finding stable work. She said “it was almost impossible” for her to find something.
For one job application, Sharkey had to go through three online questionnaires and three interviews only to end up not hearing anything back. “It was a pretty big slap in the face,” she said.
According to Statistics Canada, the annual inflation rate in Canada currently sits at 2.5 per cent, the lowest since April of this year. Kam explained that inflation isn’t just a couple of prices going up, but an aggregate price level — an average price of all goods and services.
“Like when you drop a rock in the ocean”
He added that there’s a *causal relationship between unemployment rates and inflation. When the economy declines and real gross domestic products stop growing, companies get “leaner and meaner.” Kam clarified this means the largest employers of labour start to be the largest people that let labour go. Until they can get on more solid footing as well as get their profits and shareholder expectations back.
“It’s called an exogenous shock that inflation has just dropped in the economy,” said Kam. “Like when you drop a rock in the ocean.”
Specifically, in the unemployment statistics affected by inflation, what has increased is the number of people actively looking for work who don’t find jobs. This comes partially from inflationary pressure and partially the fact the Canadian economy is now “absolutely stagnant,” added Kam.
Sharkey shared that she is “thankfully” working a retail job. Even so, it took around 50 unsuccessful job applications for her to get one call back.
Describing her summer journey seeking internships and jobs, she said she had started to look for unpaid internships at one point but found it unfeasible. “If you’re not getting paid it’s almost impossible to survive down here,” Sharkey explained.
Phan also noticed that the financial struggle doesn’t stop at job hunting.
“Before I only needed $300 to live because I cook for myself every month,” said Phan. “That’s just for eating and food. But now it’s had to be [around $400] per month. That’s a lot.”
“I don’t even think students realize how bad
it is”
Students looking for employment are not the only ones feeling the pressure with higher prices. Some employers looking to hire are also affected.
Kenny Gonzalez, a business partner and manager at Electric Repair and Machine Co., said the change in hiring operations has “been crazy.”
“To give you an example, we could have hired a technician four years ago for a salary in the range of $22 to $25 an hour. Now you can’t get anyone to work for less than $35 an hour,” he said.
These factors have made it more difficult to hire. To justify the higher wages, Gonzalez added that employers like them have to “considerably increase [their] profit margin.”
Employers can expect to shell out more for higher wages as the Ontario government has announced its plans on raising minimum wage to $17.20 per hour effective Oct. 1 of this year.
* The word has been corrected to causal from casual which was originally released in the printed issues. The Eyeopener apologizes for this mistake
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