Foreign worker cuts could improve youth unemployment rate, says Alberta jobs minister

Alberta's minister of jobs, economy and trade says efforts to limit immigration levels to Canada could help lower the province's high youth unemployment rate.

Last week, the federal government announced a strategy to make significant cuts to Canada's immigration levels in an effort to soften pressures on the housing market and to stabilize countrywide population growth. It also suggests Canada's population will decrease by 0.2 per cent over the next two years, a notable shift from last year's 3.2 per cent increase.

The province's Jobs, Economy and Trade Minister Matt Jones said in a statement emailed to CBC News last weekend that a "prudent" move away from "unsustainable immigration levels" would provide Albertans with more opportunity to compete for high-quality jobs.

"Fewer temporary foreign workers would allow an opportunity for young Albertans to enter the workforce and fill these positions," said Jones, who was not available for a followup interview. "Employing more young people would help address youth unemployment and contribute to our economy."

Some observers of the provincial labour market aren't expecting the new immigration targets to be a quick fix for youths seeking work, while employers worry the move will make it more difficult to find skilled labour. 

"We're seeing, obviously, youth unemployment has increased, and is quite high in Alberta. It's much higher than the rest of Canada. But it was also higher than the rest of Canada before the pandemic, so it's not necessarily a wholly new trend," said Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at Alberta Central, which represents the province's credit unions. 

"But there has been some evidence across Canada that it has been a much harder time for younger cohorts to find work over the past year, and part of the reason why is that there's a lot of available workers."

St-Arnaud said the change in immigration targets at the federal level does mean less competition for jobs — but while it impacts the supply side of labour, the economist says it doesn't mean employers will be more eager to hire teens.

"On the demand side, which is how much businesses are willing to hire, is not going to be affected."

Alberta's overall unemployment rate for September was 7.5 per cent, which is up two percentage points year-over-year, according to the province's economic dashboard. Alberta's rate was the second highest among all provinces, and one percentage point higher than the national average.

But for youth aged 15 to 24, that rate is nearly double. It climbed to 14.3 per cent this September, up 1.1 percentage points from September 2023. And the youth unemployment rate has remained the highest among all age groups in the province for decades, according to government data.

CBC News spoke to about a dozen teenagers trying to get a start in the working world who expressed frustration with being unable to land a job. 

Mason Vega is 17 and says he's struggled to find a job because employers want more experienced workers.

"It's kind of unfair because I don't know how to get experience in order to get a job, but you can't get a job without experience. So it's kind of a loop, I guess," Vega told CBC News, adding he applied at a grocery store and nothing came of it.