June Employment Numbers Not Good for Students

The student employment numbers weren’t good in June. In fact, they were as bad as they’ve ever been.

Statistics Canada says that June’s employment rate for students aged 20 to 24 is 13 per cent, compared with the overall unemployment rate of 7.2 per cent. This is the lowest number we’ve seen in this area in the 35 years that Statistics Canada started tracking these numbers.

“The rate of employment among students aged 20 to 24, that is, the number of employed as a percentage of their population, was 63.2% in June 2012, down from 67.4% in June 2011,” said Stats Can.

The rate for students aged 17 to 19 is even less promising: 17.3 per cent of them are unemployed, a 3.5 per cent increase compared with last year. This is especially daunting for young people, faced with high tuition rates.

“The employment rate for 17- to 19-year-old students was 51.4% in June, below the rate observed in both June 2011 and June 2009. Compared with June 2011, the unemployment rate for these students increased 3.5 percentage points to 17.3%,” said Stats Can.

Overall Stats can reported that June’s employment saw little change for the second consecutive month and the unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage points to 7.2%, as fewer people searched for work.