Record number of applications to work at the CNE this summer
Ivan Byard
On the last Wednesday of July over 2500 people lined up for a job fair in Toronto to work at the Canadian National Exhibition. A record number of people have applied to work at the CNE this summer with over 54,000 applicants for 5000 contract jobs during the month of August, at or near minimum wage. This compares with the 37,000 people who applied to work at the CNE in 2024 and the 18,000 who applied in 2023. In both 2023 and 2024, as with this year, there were only 5000 openings. More than 80 percent of CNE staff is between the ages of 14 and 29.
Youth unemployment across the country remains well above pre-pandemic levels, with teenagers, those with no post-secondary education, and recent post-secondary graduates hit the hardest. Summer job prospects for youth continue to worsen this year, after last summer neared 2009 recession levels.
Meanwhile corporate profits continue to rise.
In June 2025, the employment rate for those aged 15-24 fell by 1 percent despite the overall employment rate increasing. The current youth unemployment rate of 14.2 percent is significantly higher than the pre-pandemic (2017-2019) average of 10.8 percent. From 2019 to 2025 unemployment rose from 14.9 percent to 22.2 percent for 14–19-year-olds, 9.9 percent to 13.2 percent for 20–24-year-olds, and from 6.2 percent to 8.7 percent for those 25-29.
The rate of youth not engaged in education, employment or training is 11.3 percent (most recent figures from 2024), up from 10.4 percent pre-pandemic. In 2023 (most recent figures) after-tax corporate profits across the country totaled $577 billion for the year, over $200 billion (55 percent) higher than in 2019.
It is clear that young workers are being forced to pay for the crisis of capitalism. The cost of living continues to rise with inflation hitting basic necessities like food and rent. Having 54,000 young people apply for 5000 month-long contract jobs is just one symptom of the ongoing jobs crisis for youth.
People aged 15 to 24 are currently facing the highest unemployment rate outside of the pandemic since the mid-1990s. Those with no post-secondary education have the highest rate of unemployment in the country; those with some post-secondary education are increasingly working in jobs for which they are overqualified, or are unable to find work at all. The first quarter of 2025 saw the highest jobless rate for recent graduates in at least two decades, excluding the pandemic period.
There is also the problem of skills mismatch, in which certain industries have a lack of skilled workers available while other industries have a glut of qualified workers but very few job openings.
The unemployment rate in Ontario decreased by 0.1 percent between May and June. This was after May saw the highest unemployment rate since 2016. But, where are the jobs coming from? This year has seen mass layoffs across the province among highly skilled full-time unionized workers across Ontario, particularly in manufacturing and the college sector, largely due to the trade war with our “southern neighbors” and the manufactured crisis in the post-secondary education. Now these jobs are being replaced with part-time, precarious and gig work, in low paying fields. Year over year, the trades saw the biggest increase in unemployment followed closely by manufacturing, whereas retail and services saw the largest increase in employment.
Also important to note is that the growth of the population in Canada has been outpacing job growth, which has meant an increase in the reserve army of labour. Ontario has the second lowest labour force participation rate for workers under 25 out of all provinces, with 48.3 percent not employed or seeking employment – this is up from 45.1 percent a year ago.
Two years ago, the ruling class and their spokespersons in parliament and the bourgeois press were lamenting about a labour shortage. We were told that young people were entitled and lazy, and that they were just unwilling to work. The last two summers have seen countless stories of young people handing out hundreds of job applications in person and waiting in line for hours at job fairs only to never receive an interview or call back. And the statistics reflect these anecdotes.
Our response to the crisis of gig work, hiring agencies, precarious work, cash jobs and part time or zero-hour contract jobs is to say that “One Job Should be Enough!” The Young Communist League is calling for a full employment economy – all young workers must have the right to a decent, safe and full-time job with compensation that can provide for more than just bare necessities, only scrapping by and getting into debt.
And we have the answer! We need to slash our ever-growing military budget in favour of investments into public universal social services – we call for “Peace and Prosperity not War and Austerity.” The prime minister has proposed raising the military budget to $150 billion annually by 2035, in line with demands from Donald Trump and NATO. That amount of money could build 330,000 new social housing units or 3000 new primary schools or 40 new hospitals or 1,300,000 full-time jobs at $40 per hour – each and every year.
We need to agitate for public monopolies on social services, both to create new full-time jobs and to increase the social wage through education, healthcare, childcare, transportation, culture, recreation and more.
This is connected to the struggles for reforms such as increased wages, shorter workday and work week with no loss in compensation, card-check certification for labour unions, and anti-scab laws. The fight for reforms is essential to building the broader struggle.
Young people cannot remain dormant in the face of the looming recession. Urgent action is needed to build a working-class movement capable of winning reforms and ultimately class power.
Rebel Youth (slightly edited for context)
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