Conservatives, Liberals clash over youth unemployment as Tories pitch training reform

OTTAWA — Young workers in Canada are facing an increasingly bleak jobs market — and the federal Conservatives and Liberals are at odds over how the government could help.

Unemployment rose to 14.7 per cent for youth aged 15 to 24 in September, Statistics Canada said Friday. That’s a 15-year high outside the pandemic years.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis warned Wednesday the “deepening youth unemployment crisis” will affect young workers’ career trajectories for the rest of their lives.

He accused the Liberals of lacking a plan to address youth unemployment and laid out a Conservative proposal that would boost educational supports in high-demand fields and encourage employers to build housing for workers.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu’s press secretary, meanwhile, accused the Conservatives of recycling ideas and voting against Liberal proposals to support struggling young job seekers.

Genuis said Wednesday there’s been a “misalignment” between education and the jobs market.

He cited Statistics Canada data released Friday that showed 18.2 per cent of young people with a post-secondary degree, diploma or certificate were working in a field other than the one they had studied — up 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Genuis suggested tailoring the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program — which offers financial assistance to low-income and other in-need students — to offer more or less funding based on whether an applicant’s field of study has better employment outcomes than others.

Genuis did not offer examples of in-demand sectors but said “objective” criteria should be used to determine which fields lead to better career outcomes.

The Conservatives are also proposing to allow businesses in regions facing labour shortages to write off the cost of building homes for employees. Genuis said this would make it easier for companies to convince youth who can’t find work in their home province to move across the country.

“Secure and comfortable housing available on site or close by makes relocation for Canadians so much easier,” he said.

Genuis said these businesses can’t rely solely on foreign labour to fund their operations. The Official Opposition has called on Ottawa to scrap the temporary foreign workers program, with carve-outs for the agricultural sector.

The Conservatives pin much of the blame for high youth unemployment on what they call Canada’s broken immigration system, which they say flooded the job market and made it harder for young people to break in.

The Bank of Canada in a June report cited rapid population growth over the previous two years as driving unemployment among both youth and newcomers.

A September report from Desjardins noted today’s level of youth unemployment is more typical of recessions. That report predicted that the recent slowdown in immigration, if it continues on pace, should bring youth employment back in line with the state of the economy.

Genuis said Wednesday improving international credential recognition could help Canada integrate skilled workers faster, sparing them from being forced into entry-level positions where they would compete with younger people.

He added that current Conservative proposals to reduce red tape in homebuilding and resource extraction would have knock-on benefits for young people looking for work.

Genuis said the Conservatives want the Liberal government to adopt its jobs plan and include it in the fall budget, set to be released Nov. 4.

Jennifer Kozelj, press secretary for Hajdu, said the Liberal government is “acting with urgency and purpose” to help build careers for youth.

“By contrast, the Conservatives are offering nothing new. Their proposal recycles old ideas and ignores the modern realities of today’s workforce,” she said in a statement.

Kozelj said the federal government’s youth employment and skills strategy, which includes initiatives like the Canada Summer Jobs program, is helping to create thousands of jobs for young workers this year.

The Liberals also have temporarily boosted funding for the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program by 40 per cent for the past two years and the current academic year.

Kozelj said the Liberals will convene provinces and territories in mid-November to “accelerate our shared work” on helping young Canadians “seize their full potential.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2025.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press