Job Junction, an employment and career resource centre in Halifax. High youth unemployment can inflict serious generational damage, research shows.Maria Collins/The Globe and Mail

Claude Lavoie is a contributing columnist for The Globe and Mail. He was director-general of economic studies and policy analysis at the Department of Finance from 2008 to 2023.

Last Friday, labour-force statistics showed the unemployment rate held steady at 7.1 per cent in September and the youth jobless rate rose to 14.7 per cent. The difficulty young Canadians face in finding jobs drew considerable attention this summer. Commentators noted it was the worst youth unemployment rate in decades (outside the pandemic), blaming high temporary immigration levels, artificial intelligence and U.S. tariffs. Both Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and B.C. Premier David Eby said they want to scrap the temporary foreign worker program because it shuts young people out of jobs.

But Canada’s high youth unemployment is primarily a business-cycle phenomenon. It has little to do with a greater number of immigrants or older workers clinging to their jobs. Rather, it reflects how the school-to-work transition works – or doesn’t.

The youth unemployment rate has remained at between two and 2.5 times that of adults, consistent with historical patterns. Outside the pandemic, the last time the overall jobless rate was this high was almost a decade ago. This employment gap between young people and........

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