Do you remember the time when you graduated from college – your entire being was probably filled with youthful energy and optimism. You had sweet dreams of starting a successful career with a prestigious job right from the get-go? The bold hopes of financial independence that would translate into your own home, allow you to travel around the world and enjoy plenty of free time with the buddies? It was the best of times, wasn’t it?
Nowadays, such thoughts can’t be further from the minds of recent graduates, for the situation has drastically changed. As a result of the financial crisis and the devious policies of commercial moguls, shifting our jobs to third-world countries, young people in Canada have been denied access to the middle-class jobs that used to shape their destiny, bringing affluence to the previous generations. The situation for newly and upcoming college graduates has gotten so bleak that many of them dread even the thought of it.
The case of Justin Cantin, an undergraduate in History from the University of Ottawa, makes it a point. Upon graduation in 2009, he had only one goal for his future job: he would not have to wear a uniform. Hoping to secure a job in a museum or do research, he started sending resumes all over the country but to no avail. There were no positions available for people like him without previous experience. And burdened by a student debt of $45,000, he had to move back in with his mother and take a job at the local warehouse. When asked about his future plans, he gloomily admits that he doesn’t see how he could possibly start climbing the career ladder in the academic field. ‘I try to stay optimistic’, he raises a sunken smile, ‘but for the most part, I just try not to think about it.’
This quiet but persistent pessimism is shared by many of his peers. Since October 2008, more than 190,000 positions for young people have vanished, with the unemployment rate among 15- to 24-year-olds reaching the distressing 16.3 per cent in August 2009 (Maclean’s Magazine). The few positions that are presently on offer are hardly middle-class.
Of course, similar job droughts have occurred in the past. In the early 80s, for example, unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 reached 20.6 per cent. The same was the situation at the beginning of the 90s, when 18.4 per cent of the adolescents found themselves out of job. However there are important differences between what is happening now and the unemployment peaks of the previous two decades. For example, during the 90s recession, 83 per cent of the unemployed qualified for unemployment benefits but today, only 43 per cent can take advantage of the welfare system (ibid). In the 80s, the salaries and median family incomes were considerably higher than are those nowadays. But the biggest difference comes in the type of jobs that provided substitute for the lost workplaces: in the 90s, self-employment boomed to cover for the loss of traditional employment, while in the 80s full-time positions were replaced by part-time occupations, which still provided sufficient income. Today, on the other hand, the young generation is forced to take temporary blue-collar jobs, instead of the permanent employment they have hoped for. And these menial positions with meager wages and low social benefits are anything but middle-class.
Indeed, the prospects for employment for today’s youth are dire and dispiriting. Some young people may realize that there is no bright future looming over the horizon any time soon. The best they could hope for is to get the paychecks coming, no matter how.
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