Canadian youth heading into summer are facing a chill in seasonal job searches as recently released data suggests a steep decline in postings traditionally aimed at students and entry-level workers.
According to Indeed Hiring Lab, which examined job postings on its host website, Indeed.com, their numbers revealed that as of early May, Canadian summer job postings were down 22 per cent compared to last year.
The slowdown is backed by Statistics Canada’s April 2025 Labour Force Survey, which shows that youth aged 15 to 24 experienced a net employment loss of 28,000 jobs in April alone, with most of those losses concentrated among young women and in part-time roles.
However, Windsor's data shows a different story.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, Mikal Fakhreddin, project coordinator and research analyst with WorkForce Windsor-Essex says seasonal summer job posting numbers are normal.
"In terms of summer jobs, what we usually look at is an increase in jobs in service industry, so retail trade, tourism and hospitality, and those have gone up in the last month," Fakhreddin said. "So here, at the very least, there are jobs available for students, at least those entry level jobs are available."
Fakhreddin says while there are jobs available for youth, job hunters with experience are gaining those entry level jobs over students.
"In April, there were 1,123 jobs in sales and services, and that's the industry that students would aim for there," she said.
"I will say the issue isn't that maybe the jobs aren't available, but that the students can't get the jobs, and that's what we're seeing usually in Windsor-Essex here, it's the fact that there's an oversaturation in the job market."
Fakhreddin says the unemployment rate for 25 and up is a lot smaller than the unemployment rate for 15 to 24, which sat at 19.4 per cent in April.
"In comparison, the unemployment rate for 25 and up in April was 8.8 per cent, that's still high for 25 and up, it's higher than we usually see, but yes, huge discrepancy between those two age groups," Fakhreddin said.
Statistics Canada reported on Friday the overall unemployment rate in Windsor-Essex rose from 10.7 per cent in April to 10.8 per cent in May.
- With files from CTV News