Experts cautiously optimistic about student summer job prospects

OTTAWA — Last summer proved a record rotten one for youth employment in this country, and while the economy is gaining steam, the outlook for 2010 remains uncertain.

Although many young people are still concerned with term papers and final exams, the summer jobs season is looming large and job postings have already started trickling into college and university career centres across the country.

Job fairs have come and gone and interest from employers has been mixed.

Second-year University of Ottawa history student Casey Perreault said she knew this would be a tough year and set to work in November to find that coveted summer posting.

Having spent the school year working at her campus career centre, she has an advantage. She knows the ins-and-outs of navigating job databases and has attended workshops on the fine art of resume writing.

Still, she admits she’s set her sights high. She wants a co-op position related to her field, and despite her best efforts, the options are limited.

“Right now I only have seven job postings available to me and I’m competing with all the other history students in these postings. Often times, I’m against English and French students . . . and they’re also open to the public,” she says.

“It’s not very promising.”

Student unemployment hit 20.9 per cent last July — the highest jobless rate since Statistics Canada first started tracking such data in 1977.

While the agency won’t start tracking student joblessness until May, current labour figures for those ages 15 to 24 are only slightly higher now than they were this time last year — 15.1 per cent compared to 14.9 per cent.

There are about 42,000 fewer youths employed across Canada now than there were last year, according to Statistics Canada. Meanwhile, employment among those over age 25 is up 1.1 per cent.

While some, such as Perreault, are bracing for disappointment this summer, career advisers are cautiously optimistic.

A recent small summer job fair at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University was nearly cancelled in January due to a lack of interest from employers.

But career-services manager Tony Botelho says things took a sudden turn last month.

“We suddenly got all these requests, and we went from five to 16 (participants) in just a couple of weeks,” he says.

The university has also seen a 56 per cent increase in job-board postings since January, compared to last year.

Still, recent grads searching for that perfect long-term gig may be disappointed.

“I expect a lot of short-term contracts, not a big wave of full-time, permanent hires,” Botelho says.

At McGill University in Montreal, the number of posted jobs has improved between two and five per cent.

“The numbers are showing that the decline that occurred over the last two years has stopped and, in fact, the number of job offers we’re getting for summer and graduate positions is marginally up,” career planning director Gregg Blachford says.

“It’s still not strong by any means, but there are more opportunities than this time last year.”

He says jobs in aerospace and the oil and gas sector seem to be in demand, while the banking and finance industries are showing a small improvement.

Jobs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors are harder to come by, he says.

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Dalhousie University in Halifax saw a major spike in the number of employers who attended last year’s job fair, however, participation returned to average this year — about 38 recruiters compared to 60.

A recent graduate survey conducted last spring found just under half the grads polled were employed, while 16 per cent were still looking for work.

Early indicators are somewhat bleaker in Ontario, which was among the hardest hit by the recession.

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Lynne Brownlie, associate director for the University of Toronto career centre, says summer job postings are down 24 per cent.

Employer attendance at the university’s January summer job fairs has also decreased over the past three years, but Brownlie cautions summer job season doesn’t really get going for another month.

“It’s a bit early to predict how the summer job market will be in 2010,” she says.

“We’re hopeful that during the next two months, more summer opportunities will be posted with the University of Toronto career centre for our students and recent graduates.”

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Graham Donald of Brainstorm Consulting has particularly positive predictions for 2010.

The campus recruiting expert says layoffs over the past two years have left many companies scrambling to complete projects.

“Employers are likely to hire students for the summer to help,” he says.

“It’s a low-risk way to get things done and show their willingness to provide at least some additional resources.”

Summer hiring typically precedes full-time hiring, says Donald, adding he’s optimistic since the latter has already started picking up.

As for the ever-popular student jobs with the federal government, talk of spending freezes and deficit reductions have raised concerns.

But Treasury Board spokesman Pierre-Alain Bujold says it’s too soon to start worrying about cuts to the federal student job program.

Ottawa earmarked $20 million over two years to enhance federal public service student employment in the 2009 budget and Bujold said that won’t be affected by anything contained in this year’s budget.

A recent poll commissioned by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations found the ailing job market has taken a serious toll on students who had to delve deeper into debt to pay for post-secondary this past year because they couldn’t find decent work last summer.

Nearly a third of the more than 21,000 students surveyed at 19 universities across Canada had secured only part-time employment last summer.

Working fewer than 20 hours a week between May and August, they earned on average just $3,200 and were able to save less than half that to help pay for school. More than a quarter of respondents said they earned less than $1,500 last summer.

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Underemployed students tended to hail from Ontario. They were more likely to live in households that spoke neither English nor French, and more than a quarter of them were younger than 18 years old.

About 60 per cent of students said they were concerned about having sufficient funds to pay for their post-secondary education.

The study found students from low income backgrounds were more likely to drop to part-time student status or leave school altogether — a particular concern for Canadian Alliance of Student Associations national director Arati Sharma.

“Students reported making much less as well as saving less for school. That has a huge effect on how students are paying for school and what their level of debt is,” she says

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Jean-Michel Francheteau can relate.

The 22-year-old Carleton University student is about to graduate with an English and film-studies degree a little deeper in debt than he planned and with fewer job prospects than he’d expected.

Last summer he planned to work the front desk at an Alberta resort as he had the previous two summers, but his position was cut suddenly as a result of the economic downturn.

Unable to find meaningful work, he took the summer off, losing as much as $5,000 in potential summer earnings.

He ended up having to take out an $8,000 loan — about $3,000 more than usual — to help finance his last year of school.

“Looking for a job is probably the second most frustrating thing I could possibly do other than looking for a date,” he laments.