The life and death of the summer job

The summer job as we once knew it has become somewhat of an archaic concept. Will it ever come back?

CANADA’S YOUNG WORKERS are facing one of the worst job markets in decades this summer, prompting some to ask whether the summer job, once a rite of passage, is dying? Indeed said that summer job postings on its platform are down 22 per cent compared to this time last year. Meanwhile, data from Statistics Canada shows that 14.1 per cent of 15-to-24-year-olds were without work in April, more than double the Canada-wide jobless rate.

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“The days of covering the cost of tuition and living expenses with summer wages are long gone, and the rise of precarious gig work and more competition are causing a generational shift in the employment landscape,” observed Financial Post writer Jane Switzer.

“The summer job is certainly becoming a less consistent rite of passage,” added Ilona Dougherty, managing director of the Youth & Innovation Project at the University of Waterloo, noting that the decline of the entry-level, summer job has much darker implications for the economy in general.

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“If we want a strong economy and we want our companies and government to have the kind of workers it’s going to need in five to 10 years…you need young people to be meaningfully engaged in the economy. Otherwise, we’re going to be in big trouble.”

Young people almost always get the sharp end of the stick in economic downturns, but this time it’s being treated differently by experts, as entry-level, back-office and part-time jobs are most exposed to AI investments.

“There are growing signs that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a substantial number of the jobs that normally serve as the first step for each new generation of young workers,” wrote LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer Aneesh Raman. “Unless employers want to find themselves without enough people to fill leadership posts down the road, they need to continue to hire young workers. But they need to redesign entry-level jobs that give workers higher-level tasks that add value beyond what can be produced by AI.”

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Whatever trend to which you want to assign blame, though, a weak summer jobs market is rough when you’re the one experiencing it. There’s evidence that it damages long term earnings, a phenomenon known as ‘wage scarring.’

“I don’t have a full time job yet, haven’t started my career, ” one graduate recently told CBC News. “I’m kind of waiting for life to start.” Kieran Delamont