Students and young people in Ottawa struggling to land summer jobs

Many young people say they’re having a tough time finding a summer job in Ottawa. CTV’s Kimberley Fowler reports.

This summer could be one of the most challenging summers in recent years for young Canadians looking for a job.

“I’m still in school, so I’m just looking for any part-time job,” says Carleton University student MacKenzie Capretta. Like many students, she’s struggling to find summertime work and has applied to dozens of jobs online. “Sometimes you don’t even get a response. Or they want people with experience and stuff like that, but when you don’t have experience, because you’re still in school, that’s what’s hard.”

A recent study by job site ‘Indeed’ shows summer job postings are down 22 per cent from this time last year, and typical summer jobs like camp councillors, lifeguards, and temporary manual labourers, like painters, are also down.

At the YMCA, Employment and Newcomer Services help connect anyone looking for a job in the National Capital Region free of charge. There are three YMCA Employment Access Centres in Ottawa, at 150 Isabella St. downtown, 1624 Merivale Rd. in Nepean, and a new centre that opened a few months ago in Orléans at 240 Centrum Blvd.

The job market for students is shifting, says senior director Employment and Newcomer Services, Sebastien Martin.

“The problem right now that we’re experiencing is that a lot of the Baby Boomers that are or should be retired, are not retiring right now because the cost of living is skyrocketing,” Martin says.

Plus, with the uncertainty of U.S. tariffs, the end of the COVID-era, and recent layoffs at major retailers like Hudson’s Bay and in the public sector, students aren’t only competing with other students for work.

“Those summer positions that maybe were available, now have been filled in by a different age group that are in need of that paycheck,” says Martin.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says there are more 400,000 vacant positions in small and medium-sized business across Canada. “There still are a ton of smaller companies that hire through personal contacts and through cold call drop-ins,” says CFIB President Dan Kelly. He strongly encourages students to look beyond only applying for work online. “If you present yourself, you look the hiring manager or the owner in the eye, your chance of landing a job is so much greater than if you simply just dump a resume through a search engine, or you’re just available through one of the online job boards.”

Students who apply for jobs in person and make a physical connection with employers have a great chance of securing summer work, he says.

“The challenge is that young people are so used to doing something from behind a screen,” says Kelly. “If you’re trying to land a job, you might have to get out and put the phone aside for a few minutes and hit the street.”