High school job seekers skewing unemployment rate: CIBC

TORONTO – The job prospects for high schoolers aren’t great these days, and a report from CIBC says the high level of teenage unemployment is making the overall job picture look possibly worse than necessary.

Young people are certainly seeing a tough market, with the unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 19 hitting about 22 per cent in March, according to Statistics Canada.

The CIBC report, however, questions whether teenagers still in school who are unable to find a job should be weighed the same as older jobseekers trying to support a family.

“It is reasonable to argue that many of those high school students should not be classified as unemployed, as their primary focus is education,” said co-authors Benjamin Tal and Katherine Judge.

High school students account for a higher than normal share of total unemployment, possibly distorting the overall job market picture, they said.

When high school students are removed from job data, CIBC says the unemployment rate falls to 6.2 per cent, compared with the 6.7 per cent result from March.

While some high school students of course need to work to support themselves or their families, policy-makers should focus on young people who aren’t in school and also aren’t either working or looking for a job, they said.

The share of this vulnerable segment of the population, amounting to about 470,000 people, is roughly steady from 2019 as a share of the total population.

High school students also account for much of the drop in people aged 15 to 24 participating in the job market, which the report again notes isn’t necessarily bad.

“The fact that more high school students are prioritizing their studies over part-time work does not necessarily reflect underlying weakness in the broader labour market.”

The authors say that none of this is meant to downplay the real challenges facing young Canadians in the labour market, but that it’s important to have an accurate picture of the factors driving unemployment in the country.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.