Canada has a dynamic youth labour market outperforming most OECD countries,
according to the just-released OECD report on Jobs for Youth: Canada. Sustained
economic growth and a very flexible labour market by international standards
have contributed to rising employment rates and falling overall unemployment
for all, including for youth.
Among the reports findings:
• The employment rate among 15 to 24 ¬year-¬olds
rose to 59.5% in 2007, up from 51.5% in 1997, and well above
the OECD average of 44% for both years.
• During the same period, the youth unemployment rate decreased from 16%
to 11%, below the 2007 OECD average of 13%.
• The long-term youth unemployment incidence is particularly low in Canada,
at 2% in 2007, compared with an OECD average of 20%.
Key Findings:
No other OECD country has a higher
proportion of youth attending university or college. A
good indicator is that more than three-quarters of first jobs
are permanent and full time for school-leavers having at least
an upper secondary diploma, showing that the transition from
school to work is smooth for most young Canadians. While young
Canadian workers have low entry wages, they tend to move rapidly
into higher-paid jobs over time.
Young women are doing better than
young men in the labour market.
In Canada, contrary to many other OECD countries, young women face less unemployment
and are more often in employment than young men. One explanation is that most
employment growth has occurred in industries more likely to hire young women,
such as retail trade, accommodation and food services. In some of the industries,
i.e. manufacturing and construction, historically more likely to hire young
men, economic activity is not as strong.
Another important explanation is related to the fact that in Canada
young women are now better educated than young men, and thus have
a higher chance of being employed.
Recent young immigrants face barriers
finding a job.
According to new data on immigrants, young immigrants aged 15-24 had more difficulty
in 2006 in finding a job than their Canadian born counterparts. On the whole,
young immigrants in Canada for five years or less had an unemployment rate
of 17.2% in 2006, and only 39.5% of their age group is employed.
While the labour market performance of young immigrant men is
worse compared with young men born in Canada, it does not vary
much according to their time spent in Canada. In contrast, the
longer young immigrant women remain in Canada, the better they
fare in the labour market – even better that their male counterparts – and
the more the gap narrows between them and Canadian born women.
"Overqualification" is
widespread.
The phenomenon of "overqualification" arises when a worker performs
jobs which require much less skills than they have acquired in initial education.
In Canada, about 30% of recent graduates were overqualified in the 1980s and
1990s. The same study suggests that an individual's perception of overqualification
tends to persist over time: those who are overqualified two years after graduation
are far more likely to still be overqualified five years later.
Conclusion
Canadian growth has been strong since the mid-1990s and youth employment has
benefited from general job creation and a flexible labour market. The percentage
of youth neither in employment nor in education or training was reduced over
the past decade, as well as the youth unemployment rate.
In general, youth unemployment spells tend to be relatively short
as indicated by the very low incidence of long-term unemployment
among young unemployed Canadians.
Despite these impressive outcomes in the youth labour market, more could be
done in Canada to strengthen the education and labour market policies to provide
a smoother transition from school to work and ensure youth can move the career
ladders.
In particular, the government should take steps to discourage
early school leaving and should smooth the school¬-to-work
transition for marginalized youth, particularly Aboriginals, who
have a 22% unemployment rate.
Recommendations
Recent reforms, both at the federal and at the provincial levels, go in the
right direction. To accompany such policies, the OECD report recommends further
action specifically targeted at helping at-¬risk youth. Among the recommendations
are the following:
• Consider gradually increasing the school-leaving
age to 18 together with the development of high-school vocational
programs.
• Achieve a better balance of work and study among teenagers to prevent
them from dropping out of school.
• Enforce “mutual obligations” so young repeat users of EI
benefits report on their job-search efforts and, after three months on EI, get
help finding work.
• This could include geographic mobility assistance programs to help youth,
especially from rural and remote areas, to move to other areas where suitable
job opportunities exist.
Reprinted with permission from the OECD.
Sixteen countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Greece, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Poland, Slovak Republic, Spain, United Kingdom and United
States) have decided to participate in this review which will take
place between 2006 and 2009.
In this thematic review, the term "youth" encompasses
teenagers (i.e. youth aged 15/16-19) as well as young adults (aged
20-24 and 25-29).
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