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Gen Z is facing the worst youth unemployment rate in decades. Here is how it's different

Graduation cap in hand, Sarah Chung is posing for photos in school regalia ahead of her convocation ceremony. The campus atmosphere is joyful, but what comes next is sobering: This honours student is graduating into one of the worst youth labour markets seen in decades.

"It's bleak," said the 23-year-old graduate of the University of Calgary's media and communications program. She hasn't been able to find a job in her field and said she intends to pursue a master's degree.

"I believe that it's tough just because of everything that's happening with the economy, with our society and with politics," she said. "There's a whole [lot] of talk about 'there's a recession coming.' I'm not an economist, but I can also see it as well."

Chung is part of a generation facing Canada's highest youth unemployment rate in about a quarter-century. 

Apart from the pandemic, Canadian graduates between the ages of 15 and 24 are facing the highest unemployment rate this country has seen since the mid-1990s, according to first-quarter data from Statistics Canada.

At that time, Jean Chrétien was Canada's prime minister, Gen Z was but a twinkle in their parents' eyes and the global workforce had yet to be transformed by social media, gig work and artificial intelligence.

Fast forward to 2025, and Canada's youngest workers are grappling with a perfect storm of economic conditions: an inflation crisis that came on the heels of a pandemic; a surge in population growth that has outpaced the number of available jobs; and now, a country teetering closer to recession as the U.S. trade war wreaks uncertainty on the economy.

One expert says youth unemployment can be a "canary in the coal mine" that foreshadows broader troubles in the labour market.

"It's kind of an early warning indicator," said Tricia Williams, director of research at Future Skills Centre, a Toronto Metropolitan University lab dedicated to studying the future of work. 

"It's not just about getting jobs and skills experience. It's about the larger structural supports and the environment that young people are coming into."

Read more of the story by CBC's Jenna Benchetrit.

Federal government to put latest Canada Post offer up for union vote

Federal Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu said Thursday she's putting Canada Post's latest offers to unionized postal workers up for a vote in the hope of breaking a long-standing impasse between the parties.

She said in a social media post it's in the "public interest" to give members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) an opportunity to vote on the offers, which Canada Post said are its "final" proposals.

Hajdu said the Canada Industrial Relations Board will be directed to conduct the vote "as soon as possible."

CUPW, which represents about 55,000 mail workers, has pushed back on the idea of a membership vote on the latest offer. The union accused the employer of being "not serious about meaningful arbitration" in a bulletin sent to members on Tuesday.

Hajdu asked the parties on June 4 to work out terms for binding arbitration — a process that would see a third party attempt to hash out a collective agreement. Read more.

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