‘Not a single one’: After 100 applications, a 28-year-old still can’t find work

Brendon Bernard, senior economist at Indeed, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss StatCan's April labour force survey data.

Reza Mahmoudian says he’s has applied for more than 100 jobs in the past three months. No one called him back.

“Not a single one,” the 28-year-old says. “I feel very frustrated.”

For a couple of years, Mahmoudian worked as a home energy advisor — a self-contractor who says he used to put in 70-hour weeks. However, most of the government incentives that sustained that work, including the Canada Greener Homes Loan program, have ended, and business has dried up.

He’d like to move into construction — siding, roofing, interior work — but the sector’s downturn has narrowed his options at the worst possible time.

“My main goal is finding a contractor who is eager to teach me whatever skills I can gain,” he says.

With costs rising and bills to pay, Mahmoudian has started posting his availability on Facebook and in WhatsApp groups.

“I even posted my phone number, which increases the risk of all kinds of scams,” he says. “I’m pretty sure it’s very tough for anyone looking for a job right now, especially people under 30.”

Unprecedented increase for youth unemployment

Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey for April, released Friday, backs that up. The unemployment rate for Canadians aged 15 to 24 rose half a percentage point to 14.3 per cent. Overall, Canada shed roughly 18,000 jobs in April, pushing the national unemployment rate to 6.9 per cent — a six-month high.

A recent Fraser Institute study puts those numbers in stark context.

“What’s disconcerting is that the overall economy is not in a recession,” says study author Philip Cross. “Something extraordinary and unprecedented has happened to the youth labour market in this country.”

Youth unemployment in Canada has risen 3.8 percentage points in three years, the biggest increase ever outside a recession.

Cross says he examined and ruled out several explanations, including artificial intelligence. He points to the U.S. as a comparison: while Canada’s youth unemployment rate was 13.8 per cent last year, the American rate was around 10 per cent — a gap he says is approaching an all-time high.

“America is much further down the road in deploying technology, and particularly artificial intelligence, than Canada is,” Cross says. “And yet we’re not seeing the same spike in unemployment in American youth.”

‘I’m still trying’

In Cross’s view, two forces collided. Higher minimum wages across most provinces reduced employer demand for workers in some sectors like retail and restaurants. While, a surge in international students dramatically expanded the pool of people competing for those same jobs.

“Ask any economist and they’ll tell you: if you suddenly increase supply and depress demand at the same time, you’re going to have a very bad outcome,” he says. “And that’s exactly what’s happened in this country over the last three or four years.”

Cross’ study found young unemployed Canadians are remaining out of work for the longest periods on record.

“We’ve stacked the deck against youth, and only youth,” Cross says. “And that is irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Mahmoudian says in the last year life seems to have gotten way harder. Inflation is making it more expensive to live at a time when he’s out of work.

He’s disappointed no one is getting back to him, but says he’ll keep sending applications.

“I’m still trying.”