Summer work in short supply for students amid weakened job market
Young people heading out into the workforce in search of summer or permanent employment are facing a challenging job market, with a youth unemployment rate now more than 15 per cent in New Brunswick.
New Brunswick youth unemployment at 15.2 per cent in May
Allyson McCormack · CBC News · Posted: Jun 12, 2026 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago
The Heaven Inn Devon Café in Fredericton is a bustling spot these days. The large, Victorian-era house brings in coffee lovers throughout the year, but on a sticky-hot summer evening, it’s the colourful patio and blush-pink ice cream truck that draws a crowd.
Heaven Inn Devon co-owner, Jen Mabie, said the 9 high school students she’s hired to scoop and serve ice cream are reliable and eager to work. And unlike previous years, she didn’t have to go searching for them either.
“We got a lot of applications — probably upwards of 50,” she said.
“Last year I was kind of concerned… It was a little bit harder to find people and I was reaching out to people that I knew. And this year I was just flooded with applications.”
WATCH | ‘This year I was flooded with applications,’ café owner says:
Workers in the 15-24 age demographic continue to face a challenging job market, with unemployment climbing to 15.2 per cent for the month of May in New Brunswick, and even higher for those under the age of 20.
It's also nearly two percentage points higher than the national average, and well above the pre-pandemic average of 10.8 per cent.
High school student Bella Blyth is starting her second summer scooping ice cream and is happy to return to a job she enjoys. But she knows that’s not the case for a lot of her peers.
“I've had a lot of friends come up to me and ask if they should apply,” she said. “And I just have to say, we're already hired. There's so many resumes that have come through and it's just so overwhelming.”
Jeff Lanthier is with Meridia Recruitment Solutions, a Maritime-based recruitment agency. He said the hiring rate has cooled and summer employment opportunities aren’t as available as they used to be.
“A lot of organizations are being more deliberate with their labour costs and sometimes that comes at the expense of those roles… like summer internships or so on.”
Canada also experienced rapid population growth in recent years, with the youth population growing the fastest.
Meanwhile, hiring demand in key sectors that primarily employ young people has softened, in part due to economic uncertainty.
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Lanthier said with more job seekers out there today, people should be deliberate about each application.
“I think it's the old adage of quality over quantity,” he said. “So not just blasting out 300 of the same resume, the same cover letter to 300 jobs.”
Lanthier said by doing a bit of legwork to find out more about the organization and what's important to them, people can tailor their resumes accordingly, while ensuring the job lines up with their own passions, values and skillset.
Lanthier is also a strong proponent of young people creating their own summer jobs if they can’t find one, which shows initiative to a future employer.
“Whether it's actually executing the work, billing for the work, finding the work, or even better, if you are able to hire one or two of your friends to help with your business because you bring in so much work,” he said.
“It's certainly something that can help people stand out.”
Government job programs available
The federal government has increased funding for its Canada Summer Jobs program this year, in response to what it calls the “challenges young people are facing in the job market and the importance of work experience.”
The program will support up to 100,000 positions for young people across Canada this summer, up from 75,000 jobs last year.
New Brunswick’s Student Employment Experience Development (SEED) program is seeing increased interest. The program provides funding for non-profit organizations, First Nations communities and municipalities to provide students with up to 12 weeks of summer employment.
Post-Secondary Education and Training and Labour Minister Jean-Claude D'Amours said there were 1,235 positions available across the province this summer.
“In the past years it was not always easy to fill the entire positions. But as of now, I think that we are going in the right direction,” he said.
D'Amours said there were 31 positions that went unfilled last year, 72 the year before that, and close to 100 positions unfilled in 2023.
“Hopefully this year that will be closer to zero because there's plenty of students in New Brunswick and we really hope that each organization will be able to have their students for this summer,” he said.
For anyone currently on the job hunt, D'Amours said it doesn’t hurt to go back to the old way of looking for work; for example meeting with an employer face to face with a resume in hand, to make a good first impression.
It’s a piece of advice that Mabie agrees is worth trying. Most of the applications she received were through email and social media, but she said “it is always nice when you can talk to someone face to face.”
It’s also harder to turn someone down when they show initiative to visit the business in person, she said.
And one last piece of advice to file away for next year — start looking for work long before you need the job.
“If I was to give any advice would be to get your resumes out early because we were probably done hiring in March and I didn't get a lot of those resumes until probably just within the last few weeks.
“ I got some great resumes, but unfortunately I had already completed the hiring process.”
