Finding Summer Jobs is Proving Difficult for Vancouver Island Youth

NANAIMO - Summer is finally here, but thousand of student on Vancouver Island have more on their minds than back yard barbecues. They are looking to line their pockets for the coming year, but finding work is proving more difficult than most had anticipated. "Were we are at is having 45 to 60 young people coming in a day to find work." says Nanaimo Youth Employment Centre CEO Steve Arnett, "that tells me something." What Steve is being told by a slow start to summer employment in the mid island is what Statistics Canada data is telling employment experts.



In May Canada's jobless rate sat at 7.4 per cent for all age groups, in the 15-24 year old group unemployment dropped to 14. 7 per cent. These statistics shed light on a 27 thousand person discrepancy in the number of youth working last year to this May. Finding hot season work in Nanaimo is no easy task in its own. Around ten per cent of youth were unemployed in the month of may, a time when experts say jobs are being sought after at the highest rate of the summer.