Within Canada, the highest proportions of students with acceptable science knowledge are in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec. More young people are completing high school and going on to post-secondary training. University tuition costs have risen dramatically since 1990. At 16 per cent, Canada's overall unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 24 is average for industrialized countries. The unemployment rate for teens and young adults improved slightly between 1994 and 1995, but remained well above the ra te for people aged 25 and older.
Education greatly affects young people's chances of being unemployed.
Nearly 19 per cent of youth aged 15 to 24 with a high school education or less were unemployed in 1995, compared to less than nine per cent of those with a university degree. Thes e rates are similar to those in 1985, but higher than those in 1990. Young adults' average earnings are lower than they were during the early 1980s, although they rose between 1994 and 1995. This reflects, in part, the growing concentration of youth working in jobs as food servers or as store clerks, for example, wit h low rates of pay and primarily part-time hours.