Ottawa students struggle to find summer work as unemployment rises [Video]

Many young people in Ottawa are struggling to find jobs as unemployment reaches its highest level in recent years.

According to Statistics Canada, 20.1 per cent of returning students — people aged 15 to 24 who attended school full time in March and who intend to study again in the fall — were unemployed in May, up 3.2 per cent from the same month last year.  

Excluding the pandemic years, that’s the highest rate since 2009, the agency said.

Unemployment for young people in the same age bracket who are not returning to school has also increased to 12.2 per cent, compared to 11.6 per cent last year.

“It’s been horrible,” said Shannon Simbi, a Grade 11 student in Ottawa.

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