CNE Receives Record 54,000 Job Applications as Youth Unemployment Continues to Rise

One of Canada’s largest fairs has received a record number of job applications as youth unemployment is on the rise across the country.

The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) received more than 54,000 online job applications for more than 5,000 seasonal positions including cashiers, retail associates, game attendants, food service staff, midway operators, and informational guides.

The CNE is an annual two-week-long fair in Toronto that will run from Aug. 15 to Sept. 1 this year.

The event held a job fair on July 30 in the Enercare Centre at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, which was attended by approximately 4,000 candidates hoping to attain job positions as food and games vendors at the fair. Applicants began arriving just after 5 a.m. and formed long lines to await their turn for an interview.

CNE organizers said they received more job applications this year than ever before, and noted the record as an indication of a job market that’s causing high rates of youth unemployment.

One job fair attendee, Pollos Pubert, said he’s one of many young people looking for a job before the end of the summer after not having success applying for other employment.

“I put in about 50 resumes in (job search platform) Indeed … got three replies back with a deny, others didn’t even care to reply,” Pubert said. “Today, I’m applying for anything that pays, really.”

CNE CEO Mark Holland said the job fair turnout was extraordinary and noted that many young people have been experiencing difficulty finding a job.

“We’ve all been there. We all know what it’s like to try to get our first job. It’s very competitive. It’s hard,” Holland said.

Youth Unemployment

According to Statistics Canada data, the youth unemployment rate in June was 14.2 percent, which is an increase of 0.7 percentage points from June last year. The pre-pandemic average from 2017 to 2019 was significantly lower, at 10.8 percent. The youth category refers to young people aged 15 to 24.

Returning students aged 15 to 24 in particular are facing the highest unemployment rate of any group for the month of June since 2009, excluding the pandemic period. Specifically for students who attended school full time in March and intend to return to school full time in the fall, the unemployment rate in June was 17.4 percent.

This represents a 1.6 percentage point increase from 15.8 percent in June 2024, and a 7.2 percentage point increase from the record-low seen in June 2022 of 10.2 percent, Statistics Canada says.

The unemployment rate was 27.8 percent for returning students aged 15 to 16 years, 19 percent for those aged 17 to 19 years, and 12.3 percent for those aged 20 to 24 years.

‘Harder to Find’

A May 15 report from job posting website Indeed indicated that Canadian students were in for a rough job market this summer as summer job ads dropped 22 percent this year compared to the same time last year. Additionally, postings for common jobs for students, such as camp counsellor positions, were down 32 percent.

The report noted that youth employment opportunities did not match the 7.2 percent population growth increase for the young adult age group.

Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute said in a July 30 release that summer jobs are becoming “harder to find.”

“Some experts have pointed to the large influx of temporary foreign workers who compete with young Canadians for entry-level jobs,” the release says.​​

The organization also noted that many provinces have increased their minimum wages “substantially” over the last decade, and studies have shown that higher minimum wages can reduce youth employment and may make it more difficult for young Canadians to find summer work this year.

Chandra Philip and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.