Canada job crisis: Gen Z left jobless and drifting as youth unemployment skyrockets to highest in 25 years

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Canadian Gen Z is confronting its toughest challenge in decades as they graduate into a hostile labour market. According to Statistics Canada's Q1 2025 data, unemployment for youth aged 15-24 has reached its highest level since the mid-1990s, excluding the pandemic years. Rising interest rates after Covid-19, US President Donald Trump's tariff war, lack of new jobs with the increasing automation and AI are resulting in higher unemployment among the younger generation of workers.

"This honours student is graduating into one of the worst youth labour markets seen in decades." That's how 23‑year‑old media graduate Sarah Chung from the University of Calgary describes her situation.

Despite her strong résumé, she's "bleak" about finding work in her field and is now considering a master's degree.

Similarly, electrical engineering student Thivian Varnacumaaran, who sent out over 400 applications since December, laments how "it is disheartening" to face continual rejection. And Ben Gooch, with a mechanical engineering degree, picks up sweeping shifts at a garden centre. "I feel like I'm just throwing darts out at a wall and hoping to hit something."

A convergence of economic forces is creating a "perfect storm":

Tricia Williams at Future Skills Centre calls youth joblessness a "canary in the coal mine" - an early warning of broader labour risks.

This isn't the first youth crisis. In the early 1990s, youth unemployment peaked at over 17 per cent, a memory Gen Z is now reliving.

Research shows that entering the workforce during a downturn can cause wage scarring: lower earnings that linger for years.

Beyond numbers, the toll on mental health and optimism is real. As Ben Gooch says, "I'm kind of waiting for life to start". For him and others, the frustration of underemployment - when school-trained skills go unused in low-wage survival jobs - underscores the emotional and economic toll of this crisis.

Economist Charles St-Arnaud warns that youth are often "last in, first out" when cuts hit. Experts say targeted job programs, structural reforms, and stronger pathways from education to employment are urgent to avoid a "lost generation."

Gen Z Canadians are enduring one of the bleakest job markets in 30 years. Their voices - Sarah's, Thivian's, Ben's - reveal a generation hanging in limbo, waiting for life to begin.