Human Resources Committee on Oct. 18th, 2023

[Dr. Matthew Rempel, President, Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

Hello. My name is Matt Rempel. I'm the president of CEWIL Canada. I am joining you from Oakville, Ontario, which is located on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the treaty holders, for being stewards of this traditional territory.

I am so honoured to be here today on behalf of Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning to discuss the Canada summer jobs wage subsidy program.

CEWIL is a national association. We're celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. We're dedicated to advancing work-integrated learning in Canada. Our comments and recommendations are presented to you from our experience as an organization with over 1,800 members that collectively facilitate hundreds of thousands of post-secondary work-integrated learning experiences per year.

Work-integrated learning is where a student completes work-based experiences as part of their educational program, such as co-ops, internships and placements. This ensures that Canada's youth have the skills our labour market and society need.

We would also like to share our appreciation of the government's commitment to funding youth programs, wage subsidies and work-integrated learning. Our country's ability to supply the skilled workforce of tomorrow is a necessity in the global race for talent and enables Canada to stay competitive in the innovative and emerging industries of tomorrow. That's why a balanced distribution of resources across these programs is vital for our youth, students and our economy. Inspiring employers and industry to simultaneously invest in youth creates a return on investment that is invaluable in achieving our collective goals.

In the review of the Canada summer jobs wage program, CEWIL would like to recommend a few opportunities for your consideration that may improve access to the quality work experiences needed to fully unpin the capacity of Canada's youth.

Recommendation one is to consider leveraging the Canada summer jobs wage subsidy program to support the government's work-integrated learning goals. There may be ways to improve the impact of the Canada summer jobs wage program on the government's other goal to expand access to work-integrated learning.

Whether it's a summer job or a formalized work-integrated learning experience, the program eligibility could be updated to achieve the goals of both. For example, student work-integrated learning may be full-time employment for a semester or more, which is longer than the typical funding in the summer jobs program, or even part time, such as two days a week, which is also ineligible. These restrictions impact employers' ability to select top talent and access this program.

Recommendation two is the potential for aligning funding confirmations with the timelines of the student job search. Often, post-secondary students specifically begin their job search process several months before the funding confirmations are provided to employers in April. This is especially true of students who are taking part in work-integrated learning. By announcing funding earlier, employers who rely on Canada summer jobs funding will be able to access more students and enable a better fit for their needs.

Recommendation three is to evolve the Canada summer jobs program to be offered year-round. The traditional post-secondary education model of studying in the fall and winter semesters and then working in the summer is changing. Academic institutions and programs have rotating intakes, which leave students available for employment all three semesters a year. The Canada summer jobs program could evolve to be available year-round. This would also support industry, which has a need for youth employment beyond the summer months. Employers are ready for this, as most already take on students three semesters a year through co-op and work-integrated learning placements.

Our last recommendation would be to ensure quality work and learning experiences for students. From our experience, we know that the quality of work experience truly matters, and at CEWIL, with over 50 years of history, we've developed a depth of expertise on how to structure high-value, high-quality and high-impact learning and work experiences for youth. Work experiences need clear learning and development objectives, and structured and quality supervision, and we need to remove barriers to access for equity-deserving groups.

CEWIL collaborates with thousands of private, public and not-for-profit employers, and we have significant experience and demonstrated success in supporting industry and employers to provide quality work experiences. We would welcome any opportunity to work with the government throughout the program review process to offer our expertise in ensuring high-value work experiences for our youth.

To the members of this committee, I would like to thank you for the invitation to share our thoughts. I appreciate your consideration of our comments, and I welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Rempel.

We now have Mr. Dale, director general, Statistics Canada.

Mr. Dale, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Vincent Dale, Director General, Labour Market, Education and Socio-Economic Wellbeing Statistics, Statistics Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for inviting us today to provide a brief overview of recent developments in Canada's labour market.

Labour market conditions in Canada remain tight by historical standards but have eased in recent months. Employment grew by approximately 30,000 per month on average between January and September of this year. That growth needs to be interpreted in the context of record-high population growth.

The employment rate—the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who are employed—was 62% in September. Little changed from one year earlier, but it's down 0.5 percentage points from the beginning of the year in January 2023. After reaching a near record low of 5% at the end of 2022, Canada's unemployment rate has increased slightly and now sits at 5.5%.

While recruitment remains a challenge for many businesses, the number of job vacancies in Canada has decreased by close to 30% since the summer of 2022. Positions requiring a high school diploma or less continue to represent the majority—just under 60% of total job vacancies.

I'll now turn to a discussion of labour market conditions more specifically for youth and students.

Each year, from May to August, the labour force survey collects labour market information on youth aged 15 to 24 who report that they were attending school full time in the spring and who intend to return to school full time in the fall. For the remainder of my remarks, I'll be referring to this group as “returning students”.

On average, from May to August 2023, just over half—53%—of returning students aged 15 to 24 were employed. The employment rate for this group was similar to the rate recorded before the pandemic, but it's down slightly from the recent peak recorded in the summer of 2022, when, for both youth and older workers alike, labour market conditions were particularly tight.

Small businesses are an important source of summer student employment. In the summer of 2023, over four in 10 returning students worked for a small business, compared with one in three employed persons overall. Although young returning students can work in a wide variety of industries—and do work in a wide variety of industries—about half of them work in either retail trade or accommodation and food services. This pattern has been consistent over time.

Proportionately, more young female returning students worked in health care and social assistance in 2023 than young men, while more young men than women worked in manufacturing. Over the summer of 2023, returning students earned $17.84 per hour on average. This was up 4.3% from the same period a year earlier, which was comparable to the growth in average hourly wages for employees as a whole.

Despite a relatively tight labour market, there remains untapped labour supply across many segments of Canada's increasingly diverse population, including among students. For example, among returning students in the summer of 2023, those who were part of a racialized group were generally less likely to have a job. The employment rates for South Asian, Black and Chinese Canadian students were all lower than the average returning student population.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening statement. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Dale.

We will now begin the first round of questioning with Mrs. Gray for six minutes.

Mrs. Gray, you have the floor.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today.

My first questions are for the representatives from Statistics Canada.

How long have you been tracking youth employment statistics? How far back does it go so that you are able to compare?

[Vincent Dale]

I can tell you that we've been tracking it for at least a decade. I would have to go back and find out exactly when we started, but we have a relatively long time series.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Great. Thank you.

What statistics do you specifically keep track of with regard to the Canada summer jobs program?

[Vincent Dale]

For those students who do report being employed, we don't have any information, in fact, on whether or not that job was part of the Canada summer jobs program. We're not able to make that link directly through the labour force survey.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Okay. This is a study on Canada summer jobs, so it's interesting to hear that you don't track anything regarding that program. You don't track how many people might have been employed because of the program or who might continue being employed because of it. Absolutely nothing is being tracked from within the Canada summer jobs program.

[Vincent Dale]

I would make a couple of observations. First, the information that we do collect, including that labour force survey, provides valuable context for your study and for understanding student employment as a general issue, so it's very valuable as contextual information.

I didn't go into this in my opening statement, but at Statistics Canada we do have the capacity to integrate data from across different sources. If, for example, we wanted to engage in a more detailed research study and look at the profile of those who participated in the Canada summer jobs program, that is something we could do, but we have not done that to this point.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Actually, one of the questions I had was leading into what data might be crossed over with other programs. Based on what you just said, do you have any data at all on, for example, how many people might apply for various programs? We know the government has a number of different youth job programs. Do you collect any data on where students or youth might be applying? Someone might apply through several different streams or programs, and they might be accepted by one. Is that any kind of data that you would collect at all?

[Vincent Dale]

I could speak in general terms to how we would approach a research study of the type I described. Where we would want to look at the full file of applicants or people who had been employed in the program, we would typically do that in partnership with, for example, ESDC. They would provide us with information on applications and registrations.

We would then link that, for example, to census information or tax information and build up a portrait of those streams. As I said, we haven't done that to date and, to repeat, that's the type of thing we would generally do in partnership with a department like ESDC.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

What you're saying is that we don't really have any data at all at this point that could look at how successful the program might be, whether it's for re-employment or students staying on with organizations. It's just really interesting that the information isn't being captured.

One of the comments you made in your opening statement was about returning students, and I did want to ask you about this. I think the age group you gave was 15 to 24. I was wondering, when you look at returning students, who maybe wouldn't be within that age group, because we know that lots of returning students are mature students who are going back to school. When you're looking at students, are you only looking at this youth age, or are you also looking at having statistics on returning students who might be of different age groups?

[Vincent Dale]

For the group that I referred to as “returning students”—those who were students in the spring and intended to return in the fall—yes, that's only for 15- to 24-year-olds. That's a current limitation of the survey.

We do have additional information, for example, on those who are currently registered as students. We would have that for all age groups.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Would those be classified strictly as within that age group? Do you have a subclassification to see who's returning?

[Vincent Dale]

No. We can only do that subclassification for 15- to 24-year-olds and not for other age groups.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Okay.

I have one other quick question here. What information do you think would be useful to track regarding the Canada summer jobs program, if you were to start tracking some information?

[Vincent Dale]

Maybe I can clarify. I can speak to the data currently held by Statistics Canada, and I can say that we don't hold information related to the Canada summer jobs program.

In addition, I can say that it's not Statistics Canada's role to evaluate the effectiveness of programs. That's a question that would be appropriate for ESDC to answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Mr. Van Bynen, go ahead have six minutes.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think this is a great opportunity for us to seek first-hand knowledge in terms of following up on our mandate to improve on the program or with respect to what the intent of this committee is.

This past summer I did visit with a number of organizations that were running programs with Canada summer jobs. In many cases the young adults who were delivering those programs were returning students. If I recall correctly from some of the statistics that we received in a previous presentation, in 2022 almost 50% of the students continued on with permanent employment following Canada summer jobs, but I think that's information we can get from the earlier testimony.

From my perspective I am more interested in the logistics and what happens on the ground in terms of how well we serve the employer applicants and the student applicants. I appreciate the many challenges that CSJ creates for applicant planning, budgeting and interviewing and then the onboarding of the students.

With respect to the timelines, what I heard back from my constituents was the frustration that employers had with respect to the deadlines and then onboarding of individuals. It was interesting to hear the same concern from Mr. Rempel.

Could you just explain in a little more detail what types of challenges you're facing in terms of the logistics of the program and in terms of the effectiveness of the program, and whether you have some recommendations on how we could improve the application process, the approval process and the timelines for the onboarding?

Then I'd like to come back to you with an additional question with respect to the flexibility that you would like to see inside the programs as well.

Mr. Rempel, I'll turn it over to you.

[Dr. Matthew Rempel]

Thank you very much for the question.

I think the point I would share, having seen the recruitment cycles of post-secondary students by employers, is that they are doing it earlier and earlier than history has shown us. If you're an employer and you require funding support in order to hire a youth or a student, you need to know as early as possible that you're eligible for the funding to be able to engage in a competitive recruitment process.

Many students are securing summer work, or their co-ops or their work-integrated learning, as early as January or February, and some employers are actually looking to push it further back to get ahead of their recruitment cycles. It's not to say that's the lived experience of every employer, but there are many that are recruiting that early.

If we wanted to make sure that the funding of the program enables the employers who are eligible for it to recruit and seek top talent in a competitive way, if they are informed earlier that they are eligible for the funding, that would be a big help.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

As well, on the flexibility you were talking about, you mentioned earlier that you'd like to see year-round eligibility and full-time and/or part-time eligibility.

Can you expand on that and give us some examples of how that might work better, both for the benefit of the program and for the benefit of the student?

[Dr. Matthew Rempel]

Certainly. Thank you for the question.

Some students in post-secondary learning these days really are experiencing something outside of the traditional format of having school in the fall and winter and then being off in the summer break to work. Many institutions have academic semesters that start in January and continue into the summer, and then students might have a break in the fall, or they might have their break semester in the winter.

Recognizing that our youth and the youth who employers are attracted to could very well be available three semesters a year, the recommendation would be to explore whether that meets the needs of employers in industry and, if so, the students are available and seeking work. Therefore, the program could be evolved to have a rolling intake of three semesters long—the time frame in which employers are looking for students and students are looking for jobs—which would meet the youth mandate better.

[Tony Van Bynen, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

If program administrators find out what the better cycle is or what the improved cycle is, how would they be able to establish it to get better informed on changing the administration?

[Dr. Matthew Rempel]

Thank you again for the question.

As I offered, I think there are many actors in the system of student recruitment that could offer some support and timelines, and how that would best benefit by meeting the government's goals as well as being responsive to both industry and students. I've offered on behalf of CEWIL Canada that we'd be more than willing to share what we have observed across all academic institutions in this country in the recruitment cycles that employers have with students. We'd be happy to work with the program staff within the government to determine what an intake in applications and timelines for informing employers of their eligibility would look like to best support the program's objectives.