Employment in Canada is now in a better position than it was in February 2020 after the pandemic erased about three million jobs.
The latest jobs numbers from Statistics Canada show the country’s unemployment rate has dropped back below pre-pandemic levels.
The change in the job market can be especially positive for students, who often rely on part-time jobs to support themselves.
For Humber College first-year journalism student Hawi Digafe Tulu, the main challenge is to balance school work with part-time jobs.
“I can’t say it is hard to find jobs, but at the same time, there is still a limit of hours that you can work and it is not enough, and it is hard to reconcile that with your studies,” she said.
“Also during the pandemic, most places were closed and that made the lives of students harder. Many were employed during lockdowns,” Tulu said.
Isabelle Ferrante, a Humber College first-year journalism student who works at water park Wet’n’Wild in the summer, said it is a good thing the job market seems to be getting more student-friendly.
“Summer jobs are usually better for students, because you then don’t have to manage your school workload with your job,” she said.
Yet, when it comes to finding jobs in their field of study, things might not be that easy.
“Some programs, such as journalism, have internships in the final years, which is great.
“I don’t know what would happen if the internship opportunity wasn’t part of the program,” Tulu said.
The ease of public health measures that were in effect in late 2021 and early 2022 also had an effect on the labour market.
Several provinces have lifted proof of vaccination requirements and capacity limits in settings such as restaurants, retailers, theatres, and gyms, contributing to the reopening and even increasing the occupancy capacity of these environments.
And even sectors that have been hit the hardest by COVID-19 recovered. The food and accommodation sector added 114,000 new jobs, and the number of people working in the services-producing sector increased by 293,000 in February.
Yet Adina Zubair, a Humber College first-year early-childhood education student, says she is under the impression the Canadian job market appears more competitive now.
“Especially because everything seems to be online these days, we have more candidates applying for the same position,” she said.
“It is also really hard to study and work at the same time, which makes things harder for students,” Zubair said.
Cibelly Zedan, a careers consultant at Trabalhar no Canada, a firm that helps new Canadians with job seeking, says the Canadian job market recovery is good news, but candidates should continue to prepare properly for interviews and selection processes.
“It’s essential to have a good resume, designed for the position the candidate wants to fill, and free from grammatical errors or excess information,” she said.