Summer jobs for students used to be everywhere. Kids coming home from school for the summer or high school students looking to earn some money to help pay for post-secondary school never used to have an issue finding work to help with those goals.
These days, that seems to be more challenging – even for the professionals whose job it is to find those jobs for people. A recent Globe & Mail story claims as many as 50,000 international students in the country who have never set foot inside their classrooms. Given that a student visa allows for up to 20 hours of work per week, the implication of those reports could be seen as foreign students have come to Canada looking for work as the top priority. There is no proven evidence that’s the case in Stratford, but that doesn’t remove the speculation of others observing the local job market.
Perth-Wellington MP John Nater cited the Globe story when asked for comment about the situation, saying the ‘no-shows’ are hurting the system.
“Despite multiple studies by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration explaining abuse from a wide variety of actors, the problem has grown significantly under the current Liberal government,” he said. “Dishonest record keeping, disregard for the rules and outright fraud must not be tolerated. Employers who take advantage of international students and individuals who enter falsely pretending to be students must be held accountable.”
Nater said that no government program should make it less advantageous to hire a Canadian young person, pointing out the Student Work Placement program, and calls for change.
“The federal government should reduce its reliance on subsidies and instead foster a more competitive and more prosperous economy where businesses are encouraged to create high-paying, private sector jobs. Removing internal trade barriers and reducing taxes on work, investment, homebuilding, and energy will create more jobs and more opportunities for students and recent graduates.”
As the managing director of Partners In Employment, Deb Hotchkiss is saying that teens all over Perth County are having that issue; jobs that were once easy to find have dried up. And given where things were just a few short years ago, the situation is quite puzzling to her.
“It seems unusual, as even two years ago just as COVID was ending, lots of the local youth were able to get jobs – it wasn’t a problem,” she said. “There were jobs in retail and food service, all kinds of entry-level work.”
It’s also an issue for people in the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), who are eligible to work so they can supplement their assistance income. Typically those people would seek out part-time jobs rather than a full 40-hour-a-week job, but even those positions have become scarce.
“Based on the traffic that we’re seeing coming into our office, we’re seeing a lot of international students that are taking these entry-level and student jobs,” Hotchkiss said. “We just wonder if there’s something that we can do to help employers understand that the local kids are missing out on those really important first-time job opportunities. We have heard there are students that are working much more than the 20 hours a week they’re eligible to, and a lot of college courses appear to be fairly flexible about when attendance happens. I don’t know how it’s monitored when students are working, since we don’t know if employers are required to remit work hours for the students they hire.”
There are numerous government subsidy programs that provide employment assistance for businesses, and there are subsidies for students in general that can be applied to anyone studying in Canada – either a domestic or international student. Stratford and District Chamber of Commerce General Manager Aaron Martin said that while he hasn’t heard of any international student-specific subsidies, he recommends employers take advantage of that opportunities that are present.
“The chamber, in the past, has used Canada Summer Jobs to subsidize part of the wages for local students who we give work experience to,” he said. “I highly recommend local businesses to access it and hire some of our local students as they could be great future additions to their teams.”
Martin thinks that one reason for the lack of available positions is the uncertainty that tariffs and the Canada-United States trade dispute presents.
“Some employers have held back on certain roles due to uncertainty with tariffs as they don’t know how this will impact their business, and are waiting to see what happens before they hire,” he said. “Tourism hasn’t taken a hit from what I’ve seen, and I hope with warmer weather on the horizon, we see roles open up there.”
He also suggested that those hunting for jobs take the first step of picking an industry that interests them most and then diving into the job search pool from there.
“By doing that, you can identify what employers for that industry are in our area and then go there in person to deliver a resume,” he said. “That can be done virtually, but taking the time to go in shows that employer that you are serious and want to learn. Any job you have is a learning experience and a networking opportunity, so when you go back to school you will have gained practical knowledge – and if you’ve done a good job, a reference for future job opportunities as well.”
Regardless of how the situation arrived at her doorstep, Hotchkiss feels the need to figure the issue out.
“When a young person doesn’t get that first positive work experience, it’s kind of hard for them to adjust to the work world when they finally do get the opportunity,” she said. “At the end of the day, we’ll have to see what it looks like at the different levels of government. I’m not saying that international students shouldn’t have jobs – I just hope that local employers will look at the local students for their postings. The lack of employment opportunities affects all sorts of things … and if they don’t have those opportunities then they’re missing out on the chance to develop soft skills that will serve them well the rest of their working lives.”