The search for summer employment is on. Yes, it’s only Feb 22, but school is out in mid April. That’s only two months away. I don’t know about the average student, but our daughter has been thinking about what she’s doing this coming summer since last summer.
This is an exciting time. For the first time in her life she gets four months away from school. She can relax, party, sleep in, travel, visit, WORK, WORK, WORK!
This university gig is actually a never-ending cycle of working at a job to get enough money to sustain your schooling for another academic season. Katie has worked extremely hard in Barrie for the past two years. She saved up as much money as she could to put towards tuition and residence. She has had a part time job while at school, and this has been great as a source of spending money and to give her a break from her studies.
Katie has been home for reading week this past week and in addition to relaxing and reconnecting with friends, she has been on two job interviews in preparation for the highly competitive summer job market. She has also approached her old employer and is waiting for confirmation of employment for the summer session, but won’t know for sure until some time in May. What if the old employer doesn’t hire her back? That doesn’t leave much time to find other employment.
I know that student unemployment has been an issue in Barrie so I did a little research. Even though it is a little out of date, the Stats Can website has this data:
‘Between October 2008 and October 2009, employment declined by about 10% among those aged 15 to 24, representing 225,000 jobs and more than one-half of the total job loss during this time (LaRochelle-Côté and Gilmore 2009). With lower levels of seniority, job permanency and job protection, young workers are often the first to be laid-off. Finding a job is also more difficult as many have little or no previous work experience, even if credentials are strong.
While postsecondary students report that personal savings is the most common source of income to fund their education (79%), income from employment is ranked second (63%) (Ouellette 2006). More than one-half of students report that either savings (27%) or earnings (26%) provide the largest amount of money towards the total cost of their school year. As youth unemployment rises during economic downturns, these important sources of student income decline, which can lead to increased borrowing’
So Katie now finds herself looking at various options and has had to look outside her comfort area. She is even looking at jobs that would take her out of the country for a time, and there are always pros and cons to those arrangements. I think she’s excited about the different opportunities that are out there and I’m confident she’ll find something that she’ll be successful at. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!
