Stiles, NDP host jobs roundtable to address youth unemployment

TORONTO – Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles met with young Ontarians, experts, and community leaders for a roundtable discussion today, aimed at addressing the province’s worsening youth unemployment crisis:

“Ontario is in the middle of a jobs crisis. Over 800,000 Ontarians are unemployed. Youth are hit hardest: youth unemployment sits around 16.5%, nearly double the provincial average. For teens, it’s over 22%—that’s nearly one in four.

“We’re seeing young Ontarians spend months searching for work, while costs for housing, tuition, and food are skyrocketing. Sectors that used to be first stops for youth—retail, hospitality, service—are shrinking, and students with college or university credentials are struggling to get work in their field.

"Compared to their parents, this generation faces fewer opportunities, more precarity, and higher debt. To put it bluntly: nearly one in every four teenagers in Ontario’s labour force cannot find work.

“That is not the future Ontario should be offering. Premier Ford sees the situation and thinks that the best we can do is point fingers: tell young people to ‘look harder.’ This is an abdication of responsibility to the next generation.

“New Democrats are focused firmly on developing solutions to the rapidly worsening jobs crisis that he and his government have created. The future of our economy, and our province is at stake.”