‘It’s incredibly difficult to find a job,’ Toronto GenZers share the struggles of breaking into the workforce as youth unemployment reaches 14.1%

Canada lost 84,000 jobs in February, and the tough job market is making it especially hard for young people to find work, with some sharing their worries about their futures. 

According to Statistics Canada, the country’s overall unemployment rate rose 0.2 per cent in February, reaching 6.7 per cent. The decline comes as the number of full-time workers fell by 108,000, and private sector workers by 73,000. 

The tough job market has been a reality for many Canadians for over a year, with the unemployment rate being practically unchanged now compared to a year ago, when it sat at 6.6 per cent. While the number is a slight improvement from August and September of last year, when 7.1 per cent of people were unemployed, progress seems to have stagnated since November. 

Among the 1.5 million people who are now unemployed in the country, StatCan says 22.8 per cent are facing long-term unemployment, which means they have now been without work for at least 27 weeks, or about six months. 

Youth unemployment hits 14.1%

While finding work has become a challenge for many, young people are especially feeling the heat. 

According to StatCan, the unemployment rate among those aged 15 to 24 has reached 14.1 per cent in February, 7.4 points lower than the national rate. Unemployment is also significantly higher among racialized youth, with rates hitting 23.2 per cent for Black youth, 17.4 per cent for Chinese youth, and 13 per cent for South Asian youth, compared to 11.2 per cent for non-racialized and non-Indigenous young people. 

On top of that, a survey conducted by educational platform Intelligent, found that many GenZers are not only struggling to find jobs, but also to keep them. 

According to the study, about 75 per cent of companies have reported issues with recent college graduates who they’ve hired. Among the biggest issues reported by employers were: 

• Lack of motivation or initiative (reported by 50 per cent of employers);
• Lack of professionalism (46 per cent);
• Poor communication skills (39 per cent);
• Struggles receiving feedback (38 per cent);
• Unsatisfactory problem-solving skills (34 per cent);
• Inability to manage the work load (21 per cent).

Due to a combination of issues, more than half of the surveyed employers also said they believe most recent grads are overall unprepared to join the workforce. In addition, 79 per cent of them say they’ve had to provide improvement plans to recent grads, while 60 per cent say they’ve eventually fired them for underperforming at the job. 

Following GenZers’ bad reputations and employers’ negative experiences, many say they are going to think twice before hiring them. While 1 in 6 managers say they would be hesitant to hire new grads moving forward, 10 per cent say they are unsure on whether they would hire them, and five per cent say they will not. 

Torontonians weigh in

Toronto resident Austin says that he has heard conversations about Gen Z employees being difficult to work with, especially when it comes to social skills. 

However, he acknowledges the job market is also tough on the younger generation, and believes they can work on their social skills in order to secure employment. 

“People kind of want to attribute the Gen Z kind of thing all over the generation saying that they’re not into work. And I don’t know specifically what it’s all about, but it seems to be a theme,” he told Now Toronto. 

“It’s incredibly difficult to find a job. I think to fire someone based off a lack of social skills, I think is a mistake, because you can be taught social skills, but not being willing to do the job you’re hired for, I think is another conversation,” he added. 

Another older generation resident, Paul, says he has worked with GenZers who lacked professionalism and willingness to do the job, including when it comes to letting go of their phones and focusing on their tasks. 

“I would say, because I came from construction, they were not as hard working, in terms of, when it came to manual labour, like to be on their phones a lot. So, technology had a lot of place in that…That might be my ticket item, actually, because I didn’t grow up with that stuff so kind of separated from it with work,” he said. 

On the other hand, Kennedy, who is 26, says the issue is not the lack of hard work, but a combination of the market being too difficult and life being too expensive. 

“I would say that they’re trying harder than our parents were, definitely, but they seem to be doing the best that they can, just because things are really expensive these days,” he said. 

In fact, he says that he is even considering moving to a different province to seek cheaper living prices and mortgage. 

“It’s unfortunate. I’m not too sure what’s gonna happen in the future based off what’s happening. A lot of people are moving to Alberta, B.C., just because of that. That might be my plan B, you never know,” Kennedy said.

Another Torontonian, Ohene, who is a part of Gen Z, says that while he is employed, many of his friends, some who even have college degrees, are unable to find work. 

He believes that the job market faced by GenZ might be a lot tougher than the one found by previous generations, saying that today the stakes are higher, and a lot of it comes down to luck.

“A lot of my friends are college educated. Back in the day, that used to really mean something. Now, it’s kind of like the same as getting a high-school diploma. You don’t get any special treatment for having a college degree these days,” he said. 

“I got completely lucky here. I had one decent interview that went well. They took a chance on me, but definitely being able to have good interpersonal skills, being able to talk to people…being able to socialize is huge, and I think that it’s something that can be worked on.”