TORONTO – More than 850,000 Canadians under the age of 29 are unemployed and without any post-secondary education or training, which could potentially cost the country billions. The data emerges from a new Deloitte report entitled “Failure to Launch” (you can download and/or read it here: Deloitte-Report-Failure-to-Launch), commissioned by the King’s Trust Canada, a charity founded by King Charles III, which works to create pathways to employment for young people facing barriers, providing them with free professional training, work experience, networking opportunities. 

According to the report, youth unemployment in Canada reached 14.5% in August, the highest level recorded in the last ten years (in 2013 it was 13.2 while the average figure for 2023 was 10.8). And according to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate for Canadians aged 18 to 24 in October was 12.8 per cent, more than double the 5.4 per cent rate for Canadians aged 25 and older. A difficult situation, in short, which could lead – according to the report – to a loss of 18.5 billion dollars in GDP and more than 5 billion dollars in revenue losses for the Canadian government.

Farah Mohamed, CEO of King’s Trust, interviewed on “Your Morning” on CTV, explained that nothing is being done to hire young people “in a way that makes sense”, explaining that “a young person needs to have three years of employment experience, a graduate degree, bilingual … and they want to be paying this person $20 an hour”.

According to Farah, the problem affects racialized populations and those with disabilities the most. And what’s missing is government initiative: there are things that can be done, she said, including government incentives to hire young people who face obstacles.

Furthermore, according to Farah, companies should also be part of the solution: entry-level positions should be accessible, without unreasonable qualifications. “We have to figure out, what are the barriers that we are putting in front of people?” she added.

According to the Deloitte study, youth unemployment rates vary greatly across Canada. Looking at the 2023 data, it ranges from 19.4% in Nunavut to 6.2% in Yukon. The data also varies considerably from one country to another: Canada is positioned halfway between the G7 countries and the other selected OECD member counterparts.

In the imagine above, two of the tables and a pic from the report