For young people entering the job ­market, prospects are grim. The unemployment rate among non-student Canadians aged 15 to 24 was 12.2 per cent in May, according to Statistics Canada. It was 20.1 per cent for returning students.

There are some immediate causes. The COVID epidemic, and the measures taken to combat it, constricted the workplace.

The rise of robotics and artificial ­intelligence have killed job opportunities, while the threat of U.S.-led trade wars has had a cooling effect on the economy.

It must also be said that an undergraduate degree in the humanities, once a near-guarantee of good employment, has lost much of its appeal.

Now a second degree, preferably in a work-related discipline like health administration or computer science, might be needed, and even then there is no assurance of a well-paying job.

But there are far deeper factors at work. Canada’s economy has fallen behind other advanced countries, in........

© Times Colonist