In the third of their series of briefs looking at the labour market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, GLRC Director Luann Good Gingrich and Andrew Mitchell examine the impacts on youth ages 15-24 using data from the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) conducted by Statistics Canada.
The devastating impacts of COVID-19 and public health restrictions on employment and income has not been evenly distributed across all sociodemographic groups or regions in Canada. For example, we know that the number of workers directly affected by the COVID-19 economic shutdown peaked at 5.5 million in April 2020, including a 3.0 million drop in employment and a 2.5 million increase in absences from work (Labour Force Survey, October 2020). Researchers reported that young people were hit particularly hard, as “the unemployment rate for youth (15- to 24-year-olds) rose from 10.3% in February to a monthly historical high of 29.4% in May” (Frenette, Messacar, & Handler, 2020, July 28).
Following an easing of restrictions in the summer months, optimism grew in the early weeks of autumn as we saw signs of economic recovery. According to the September 2020 Labour Force Survey (LFS) report from Statistics Canada, highlights for the month of September included:
- An increase of 378,000 jobs (+2.1%), bringing employment to within 720,000 (-3.7%) of the pre-COVID February level
- The bulk of this increase was in full-time work, up by 334,000 (+2.1%) in September, adding to gains in August of 206,000 jobs (+1.4%)
- A big chunk of job gains was in sectors hardest hit during the pandemic: Accommodation and Food Services added 72,000 positions; Manufacturing up 68,000; Arts and Culture jobs increased by 56,000 positions
- 3% of the workforce was either unemployed, underemployed, or had given up their job search, almost half of the 36% reported in April
- For both mothers (+0.9%) and fathers (+1.5%), September employment was on par with pre-pandemic levels
But this recovery was short-lived, as by mid-October, employment growth had slowed due to restrictions made necessary by the second wave of the pandemic. Furthermore, it became clearer that recovery is not evenly experienced among all demographic groups. For example, Statistics Canada reported that by October, core-aged men were within 2.0% and core-aged women within 1.4% of their pre-COVID employment levels, while employment rates for youth aged 15 to 24 remained 10% below February levels, much further behind the recovery in other major demographic groups (LFS, September 2020; LFS, October 2020).
Previous briefs in this series on labour market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada have looked at various employment measures for immigrants (June 26, 2020) and women (September 9, 2020). In this third brief, we analyze Statistics Canada’s monthly public-use microdata file (PUMF) of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to focus on youth, with special attention to comparisons by gender and immigration status. Data show that young workers have been differently affected by the economic crisis that accompanied the pandemic restrictions beginning in March 2020. Furthermore, we note that employment and unemployment rates are crude measures, telling only part of the story. Thus, in our analysis we examine several distinct employment indicators for young workers in Canada.
For the purposes of this brief, we define youth as those under the age of 25. We have further divided this group into those aged 15-19 and those 20-24 based on differences observed in their experiences. We restrict our analysis to those under the age of 65, that is, those most active in the labour market.