Youth unemployment highest in 11 years: StatsCan
CBC News
Last Updated: Friday, July 10, 2009 | 9:26 AM PT
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Young people have been hardest hit by rising unemployment across Canada according to data released Friday by Statistics Canada.
Employment figures for June show a loss of 33,000 jobs among those 15 to 24 years old, rocketing the unemployment rate among young people to 15.9 per cent, the highest it has been in 11 years.
Older workers seem to be offsetting youth job losses: there were 33,000 additional jobs last month for workers aged 55 and older.
In B.C., the overall jobless rate climbed to 8.1 per cent last month up half a percentage point from May tying the province with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador for the highest month-to-month increase in the country.
The president of the Canadian Labour Congress, Ken Georgetti, said the situation for youth is just going to get worse.
“There's no jobs for students coming out of school, which is again going to show up coming into the school year more student debt going on and it just starts to snowball,” Georgetti said.
“Part of the problem, though, is that the stimulus package that [federal Finance Minister Jim] Flaherty keeps guarding and holding on to so dearly aren't working.”
More money needs to go into the pockets of the unemployed, and that requires changes to the Employment Insurance system, Georgetti said.
B.C. Economic Development Minister Iain Black offered a more optimistic assessment. While the numbers are disturbing, he said, he's confident the provincial economy should start turning around soon.
“I do believe it's encouraging that in the spring outlook, the Conference Board of Canada along with the [International Monetary Fund] forecast B.C. to record more growth than other jurisdictions highest rate in Canada. Part of that is without question due to the Olympic Games.”
The 2010 Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C., next Feb. 12.
Corrections and Clarifications
Earlier versions of this story indicated incorrectly that 33,000 jobs were lost in B.C. in June among people aged 15 to 24. In fact, the job-loss and unemployment-rate figures among young people referred to all of Canada. July 13, 2009 | 5:59 PM ET
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Colonel Angus wrote:Posted 2009/07/13
at 10:02 PM ETThis is certainly the most eye-opening thread I have posted in on the CBC forum, maybe ever.
I suppose I take comfort in the fact so few agree with me, as it gives me faith that things are in this mess, in part, for precisely the same reason — self pity and finger-pointing.
And isn't that the point, Cloverdale, the generation of youth displaced economically by the recession in the early 1980s (still statistically the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s) are now the scapegoats for the current generation's tough times?
Ironic? Or simply ignorant?
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Cloverdale wrote:Posted 2009/07/13
at 5:50 PM ET” No one was thinking how ideal life was back in the 1970s and 1980s”
I was out or work for two years in 1981/82 as a 21 year old during that big recession, and it wasn't for a lack of willingness to work at anything that paid at all. The story wasn't much different then as now, and we will likely rebound after a year or so this time like it did then.
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Colonel Angus wrote:Posted 2009/07/13
at 2:57 AM ETTo Bene Gesserit:
One can go back and forth forever analyzing the macro-economic impact on the micro-economic road one person can take.
We all can agree that the system is screwed as it heavily, and exponentially, favours 'the haves'. And we can all envision a more egalitarian system.
Our individual concern is how to make the most of what is in place. Complaining it is 'unfair' is repeating the obvious. Every generation can look to the one before it and say, “Gee, you sure had it good” and be both right and wrong at the same time.
200 years ago all you had to do was walk west, pound a few stakes in the ground, and the land was yours. How easy was that? Those lucky guys had all the opportunities!! Of course, there were no roads, and no cars to carry your load, nor stores to get fast-food at along the way.
So what is the point?
Well, aside from protesting and getting others informed, anything short of a revolution will maintain the status quo.
How you conflate my words down to ' “we are blessed in Canada and youth should simply pull up their bootstraps” is bunk lies', assuming you are addressing my posts, is intellectually criminal.
My point is this: the world is NOT looking out for you despite the window-dressing. But there is a road you can take and find comfort. That road is one of being diligent, making good-term range choices with a mind to history, opening the doors of opportunity you do find, and trying your best.
Complaining about the (macro) situation we all find ourselves, and then excusing one's (micro) plight accordingly is simply apples and oranges.
When it rains, pick up the umbrella — don't complain you are getting wet because nature is abusing you.
“Capitalism is man exploiting man. Communism is the exact opposite”
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Colonel Angus wrote:Posted 2009/07/13
at 1:58 AM ETI appreciate it is pretty much worthless posting sanity on this thread as emotion has, as with religion, overcome reason.
So I resign to the masses.
The youth have no hope. There are zero opportunities. The school of hard-knocks isn't available to even the most diligent. Any chance left at all is for only the silver-spooned offspring.
My generation, and all of those before me, have systemically gone out of our collective way to destroy the future on all fronts. [I know I did my part with the 80-odd people I have employed in the last 5 years, all certainly abused by with flexible work hours, a daily free meal, unrequested raises, and steady pay.]
I know we all had children only after a good romp following a case of beer, and you were all mistakes. No one was thinking how ideal life was back in the 1970s and 1980s or earlier, how easy it was for us to succeed, and how absolutely dismal and bleak we had planned to leave things for our unplanned offspring.
My apologizes to all who are asked to make the most of what they have — free education for 12 years, social services, food banks, subsidized housing, interest-free student loans and job opportunities — how dare the world offer you so little.
Clearly no generation has ever faced such unfair hardships or burdens. I would offer you all my earnings and benefits which I stealthily derived off the backs of you all but, alas!, it still would not put a work ethic into your bones or a sense of pride in your hearts. My bad.
And apologists for the ever deteriorating, economic plight which engulfs us all, get informed. And if you are still crying over the unfortunate plight of the youth, first look inside and see where you maybe went wrong.
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2009/07/12/cheap/index1.html
Bene Gesserit wrote:Posted 2009/07/13
at 1:17 AM ETSlave labour exists all over the world RIGHT NOW. Slaves built the Beijing Olympic buildings – many died.
To deny that the same forces that create slavery all over the world exist and are active in Canada is more than ignorant it is complicit. Our rights as human beings are being eroded and if you somehow think human beings are somehow nobler on this chunk of land than the one over there (with slaves) THINK HARDER!
To simply say that “we are blessed in Canada and youth should simply pull up their bootstraps” is bunk lies. We are being fleeced.
We are blessed to live in Canada. I love this country. And people fought and died for the human rights and working rights that some people on this forum seem terrifyingly complacent about.
Jebus people! If you are willing to give away your human rights, people with power will always be willing to take them.
