Youth Labour Force Participation in Canada – The first significant, prolonged decline since the early 1990s

The labour force participation rate of 15- to 24-year-olds (the percentage who are employed or seeking employment) declined from 67.3% in 2008 to 64.2% in 2014, reflecting a 3.8-percentage-point drop from 2008 to 2012 followed by a slight increase (Chart 1). The decline was particularly pronounced among youth aged 15 to 19, whose participation rate fell 6.2 percentage points to 49.8% in 2014.

This was the first significant, prolonged decline in youth labour force participation since the early 1990s. From 1989 to 1997, the youth participation rate had fallen from 71.2% to 61.5% in the wake of the 1990-1992 recession and the slow labour market recovery that followed.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Youth Labour Force Participation: 2008 to 2014