It is imperative for young Canadians to feel they have a stake in Canada’s success, and that starts with feeling that the country cares about their well-being and believes in their potential.
Following the creation of over 80,000 jobs in June, employment numbers took a step back in July. The Canadian economy lost 41,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate remaining steady at 6.9%.
Job losses were concentrated among young Canadians, with 31,000 job losses in the age 15-24 cohort. The youth employment rate fell to 53.6%, the lowest level since November 1998 (excluding the COVID pandemic). The youth unemployment rate rose to 14.6%, the highest since 2010 (again excluding pandemic years). From July 2023 to July 2025, the youth unemployment rate is up 4.3 percentage points. Returning students aged 15-24 also face a tough job environment, with an unemployment rate of 17.5%, the highest rate since 2009.
Taken as a whole, these job numbers are less than ideal, though not disastrous. They must be viewed against the backdrop of near-stagnant population growth after years of significant increases. If this trend continues, lower levels of population growth – or even negative population growth in certain cohorts – could dampen monthly employment numbers.
However, the youth unemployment numbers are a different story. The significant increase in youth unemployment risks becoming entrenched, and this would have serious long-term consequences. If a large portion of an entire generation loses hope in the chance of progress and a good life, that generation will be more susceptible to extremist ideologies and could play a destabilizing role.
The connection between desperation and extremism was noted by Franklin Roosevelt many decades ago, when he said, “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
With social media already radicalizing a portion of the younger cohort, allowing a sense of pervasive hopelessness and economic insecurity would be unwise to put it mildly.
This is where the idea of ‘make-work jobs’ comes into play.
While it may not be purely efficient for the government to create jobs solely for the sake of providing employment opportunities to young Canadians, some benefits should not be overlooked. Getting someone’s ‘foot in the door’ with their first job or role of responsibility can build confidence, skills, and connections that boost long-term prospects. Furthermore, giving young people a stake in the country early on, and a sense of achievement, agency, and investment in the nation’s success (by seeing that success as intertwined with their own), can counteract destabilizing and extremist forces.
That’s why there is merit in pursuing voluntary national service (the make-work portion), and expanding the military and CAF Reserve Force to create more job opportunities for young Canadians.
Voluntary national service is not only military. A Canadian National Service program could feature the following:
- A civilian public works corps, focused on repairing infrastructure, climate adaptation, environmental restoration, wildfire prevention, park maintenance, flood defence, and urban beautification.
- A national skills apprenticeship program that – in partnership with private industry – placed participants in key sectors to learn important skills, with the wages and training costs subsidized by the government.
- A community and social services corps, dedicated to providing elder care, disability services, literacy, and mental health outreach, with government funding placements in non-profit organizations and municipalities.
- A national disaster response and emergency preparedness reserve, which would pay young Canadians to be trained in firefighting, search and rescue, and emergency logistics.
- The military portion of the national service program with voluntary short-term enlistment to gain basic training, with a pathway to full-time military service if desired.
While some of these programs exist in various forms and in various locales, a national service program would ramp them up significantly.
This would help to build a broad sense of what it means to serve the nation, help ease youth unemployment, give young people a sense of connection to Canada by showing the country cares about their wellbeing and success, and help furnish the next generation with essential skills and life experiences.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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