by Catherine Mwitta for The 44 North, Contributing Writer - Politics
This article is the second in a series addressing four key challenges the next generation of Ontarians will face: Climate catastrophe, education reform, the housing crisis, and career opportunities.
Editor's Note:
The following article reflects the views & analysis of the author. As with all opinion and essay submissions, the piece has been edited for clarity and reviewed carefully for factual accuracy, but the interpretations & arguments are the author’s own. The 44 North publishes an array of perspectives & voices to encourage and ensure thoughtful engagement with complex social, political, historical, and cultural issues.
In 2022, youth unemployment rates hit a record low. By 2025, 437,000 people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed and looking for work, up 57 percent from 290,000 in 2022. Today, Canada's unemployment rate is at 6.5 percent, up 0.1 percent from Aug 2026. The Canadian economy lost 68,000 jobs in September, 48,000 of those lost among youth aged 15-24. Young people remained unemployed the longest, with teenagers hit hardest.
Such drastic changes could be attributed to government policy shifts, including Parliament raising immigration quotas and loosening restrictions on international students' work weeks. The Fraser Institute argues that an influx of Canadian residents and higher wages have led employers to hire more qualified workers. In 2026, competition has increased as more experienced workers laid off by U.S. tariffs—along with tech companies replacing employees with artificial intelligence (AI)—reenter the job market.
Other factors behind this large loss of youth jobs include reduced entry-level hiring. Many roles labelled as "entry-level" now demand two to five years of prior experience, transforming them into mid-level positions at junior-level pay.
Dispelling myths
It’s false that artificial intelligence is the main contributor to rising youth unemployment. No current evidence shows that adopting AI in the workforce has caused extensive job losses in Canada.
A Statistics Canada survey found that 19.2 percent of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or provide services. 25.2 percent of businesses plan to use AI over the next 12 months, up from 10.6 percent in Q3 2024, while 22.1 percent of businesses are unsure about future AI adoption and 52.7 percent do not plan to use it. Only 8 percent of businesses use AI significantly in core operations; 50 percent use it to a low or moderate degree.
AI use in the workplace is still rapidly developing and may have a greater impact on the early-career squeeze in the future. However, the general public’s thoughts on AI at the moment mirror preconceived notions of what society would look like after the Industrial Revolution.
The history of labour in Canada
In the early 19th century, the fur trade and exploitation of Canada’s other natural resources, such as logging and fishing, were the main sources of work besides agriculture. The second industry, the apprenticeship system, accounted for 10 percent of the urban labour force. After the Industrial Revolution, work shifted from producing life’s staples to earning a living; demand for unskilled and skilled workers grew rapidly.
With the rise of factories came the rise of the working class. Boys and girls were expected to work; women and children were paid less than men; long hours were often the primary complaints of factory workers; dangerous working conditions and beatings from employers were commonplace.
During this time, Canada had approximately 165 labour organizations. They campaigned for better working conditions, and workers organized many strikes to improve their rights. By 1956, the Canadian Labour Congress was founded through the merger of two major labour bodies: The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada and the Canadian Congress of Labour. The merger created a single, unified national voice for Canadian workers.
Canada's labour laws have continued to improve since, but some argue the government’s current efforts are not enough.
The future of the job market
Labour unions and the Canadian government may misunderstand Canadians' frustrations with the job market—it’s undergoing another revolution similar to the Industrial Revolution. As such, it feels impossible to guess what the economic landscape will be in a decade. What will “work” look like in the future of transnational employment, labour globalization, and AI integration in the workplace? What shifts will be needed to rebalance the entry-level jobs available to youth, and bring the workplace into equilibrium? Thankfully, the forecasts aren’t hopeless, though change might be a few years away.
The 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report predicts a decline in cashiers, ticket clerks and other clerical roles, including postal service clerks, bank tellers and data entry clerks. Some existing industries expected to grow the most are farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers and salespersons. “Baby Boomers,” the largest and oldest generation of our population, will drive demand for care economy jobs such as nursing, social work, counselling, and personal care aides, which are also expected to grow significantly over the next five years.
Technical, environmentally friendly, and AI-integrated positions will become commonplace on job boards like Indeed. Likewise, the gig economy will replace traditional roles; temporary, freelance, and project-based contracts will allow people to have flexible careers across multiple industries.
In the near future, youth applying for jobs could consider roles in healthcare as personal support workers, nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals. The second industry to expand in the coming years is tech. In post-secondary school, teens could consider specializing in Cybersecurity and AI for long-term career security. Lastly, Natural Resources Canada projects 130,000 additional job openings in electricity and renewable energy between 2028 and 2050, such as solar and wind power, which will be another industry for young people to look for work stability.
The most positive shifts in the job market will hopefully be workplace flexibility, which shapes how, when and where people work; skills-based hiring, which connects workers to more opportunities based on their abilities rather than traditional credentials; and lifelong, continuous learning for long-term career growth.
In part three of this four-part series looking into the future, I’ll be diving into Canada’s environmental future and how climate change will impact young Canadian’s livelihoods.
Catherine Mwitta has a bachelor’s in creative writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University and a certification in Journalism from Langara College. She is an editor at Augur Magazine and INKspire. Likewise, bylines at Stir Vancouver, SAD Mag, This Magazine, C Magazine and Bluffs Monitor.
