Gen Z is facing the worst youth unemployment rate in decades. Here is how it's different

Graduation cap in hand, Sarah Chung is posing for photos in school regalia ahead of her convocation ceremony. The campus atmosphere is joyful, but what comes next is sobering: this honours student is graduating into one of the worst youth labour markets seen in decades.

"It's bleak," said the 23-year-old graduate of the University of Calgary's media and communications program. She hasn't been able to find a job in her field and said she intends to pursue a master's degree.

"I believe that it's tough just because of everything that's happening with the economy, with our society and with politics," she said. "There's a whole [lot] of talk about 'there's a recession coming.' I'm not an economist, but I can also see it as well."

Chung is part of a generation facing Canada's highest youth unemployment rate in about a quarter-century. 

Apart from the pandemic, Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are facing the highest youth unemployment rate this country has seen since the mid-1990s, according to first quarter data from Statistics Canada.

At that time, Jean Chrétien was Canada's prime minister, Gen Z was but a twinkle in their parents' eyes, and the global workforce had yet to be transformed by social media, gig work and artificial intelligence.

Fast forward to 2025, and Canada's youngest workers are grappling with a perfect storm of economic conditions: an inflation crisis that came on the heels of a pandemic; a surge in population growth that has outpaced the number of available jobs; and now, a country teetering closer to recession as the U.S. trade war wreaks uncertainty on the economy.

One expert says youth unemployment can be a "canary in the coal mine" that foreshadows broader troubles in the labour market.

"It's kind of an early warning indicator," said Tricia Williams, director of research at Future Skills Centre, a Toronto Metropolitan University lab dedicated to studying the future of work. 

"It's not just about getting jobs and skills experience. It's about the larger structural supports and the environment that young people are coming into."

The Canadian labour market has endured a kind of whiplash in recent years.

After pandemic-era restrictions were lifted, companies celebrated with a hiring spree — the economy regained jobs it lost during the crisis and Canadian youth reaped the rewards of a summer job boom.

But employers were soon struggling to find workers and fill postings, a result of the workforce having shrunk during the pandemic. The federal government and public policy experts prescribed higher immigration as an antidote to the shortage, which led to a rise in the Gen Z and millennial working population.

Hiring sentiment "was really high coming out of the pandemic, which probably was never going to last," said Brendon Bernard, a senior economist at Indeed who closely follows youth labour market trends.