The recovery from the recession of the early 1990s is not yet completed and a substantial amount of slack remains in the economy. But there are other reasons. The industrial composition of output during the recent recession displays an unusually strong decline in youth-intensive industries. Due to relatively weak consumption spending, those industries, especially the retail trade industry, were hit harder than other sectors. Some structural factors, such as a decline in relative demand for lesser-skilled labour, may have also caused a decline in the labour demand for young workers.
Positive news is on the horizon.
As the recovery, especially domestic consumption, gains momentum, it can be expected that labour demand for youth will start growing at a faster pace and that the youth unemployment rate will fall more than its adult counterpart in the coming years. The most recent projections provided by the Canadian Occupational Projection System indicate that there will likely be an excess demand for new workers in the skill groupings that correspond to college and secondary education levels. Around 70 percent of the youth population falls into these skill groupings. That excess demand is expected to translate into a happy combination a fall in youth unemployment and better working conditions.