Millennials are finding that education only guarantees debt, not a stable job. Even in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), graduates are struggle to find a good job. CBC News reported that 33% of the engineers in Ontario are now underemployed. “I actually thought that coming out of school I would be a commodity and someone would want me,” said one 21-year-old mechanical engineering graduate. “But instead, I got hit with a wall of being not wanted whatsoever in the industry.” He’s applied for 250 engineering jobs, resulting in four interviews, but no job offer, and he’s since broadened his job search to the deli counter at the local grocery store, because “It’s a job.”
“More than 12% of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed,” reports CBC News, “and more than a quarter are underemployed, meaning they have degrees but end up in jobs that don’t require them. The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show that the unemployment rate for 15-to-24-year-olds is almost twice that of the general population… A 2014 Canadian Teachers’ Federation report found nearly a quarter of Canada’s youth are either unemployed, working less than they want or have given up looking for work entirely.”
CBC News also points out that the number of students enrolled in Canadian universities has more than doubled since 1980, from 800,000 to over two million. More graduates will soon find out that a post-secondary education is no longer a guarantee of stable employment. (cbc.ca)