Graduating, but not getting hired: P.E.I. grads face uncertain job market

When Ishani Sabitharashi walked across the convocation stage at UPEI to receive her degree in environmental studies in May, she was all smiles in her school regalia. She posed for photos, proudly holding the degree she had worked four years to earn.

But reality soon set in.

Sabitharashi has spent months, even before graduation, applying for full-time jobs both within and outside her field. So far, no luck.

To pay the bills, she's currently working part-time in sales at a jewelry store.

"That kind of makes you feel sad and disappointed, because… you're not getting what you want while you are stuck in another place [that] has nothing to do with your degree," Sabitharashi told CBC News.

Sabitharashi isn't alone. Kylah Hennessey, a career counsellor at UPEI, says she's heard from a number of final-year students and new graduates struggling to find full-time work, whether in their field or even in casual employment.

"Unemployment rate for youth is high right now," Hennessey said. 

Recent data from Statistics Canada proves that. Apart from the pandemic, Canadian graduates between the ages of 15 and 24 are facing the highest unemployment rate this country has seen since the mid-1990s.

Hennessey says part of the issue is economic uncertainty, which leads to many employers not hiring as many people as before.

Canada's youngest workers are grappling with a perfect storm of economic conditions: an inflation crisis that came on the heels of a pandemic, and now, a country teetering closer to recession as the U.S. trade war wreaks uncertainty on the economy.

But there can be other reasons why students are struggling in the job market, Hennessey said, including a lack of opportunities in their fields of study.

Sabitharashi has been looking for jobs related to environmental health and safety on the Island. But she said most openings, even entry-level positions, require previous experience, which is something difficult for recent graduates to show.

She has expanded her search across the Maritimes but faces the same problem.

"When you graduate, you do have some sort of hope and expectations, like, 'Maybe after a few months, I'm gonna land into a job that is full-time, related to my field,'" she said. "That is not the reality anymore."