Youth unemployment is up. Here's how parents can help their teen land their first job

Dalyce Semko (right) helped her daughter Eva Suanez (left) land her first job by doing practice interviews with her. As the employment market for teens and young people gets tighter, experts say there are things parents can do to help their children find that first job. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO)

As a parent, you want your child to spread their wings and fly, not crash down to reality when they first enter the job market.

But how do you help your young person soar when so many other first-time job-seekers in 2024 are landing with a thud?

It's not an easy time to be a teen or young adult in the job market. The unemployment rate nationally for those aged 15-to-24 years old hit 14.5 per cent in August, according to Statistics Canada. Excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, that's the highest youth unemployment rate this country has seen since February 2012.

Joblessness has been ticking up gradually in Canada for all ages of workers since mid-2022 as the economy and labour market have cooled. But for young people, the unemployment rate sits at more than double the 6.6 per cent Statistics Canada reported for the general working-age population in August.

Teens and young adults — with their relative lack of experience and tendency to work in more precarious, minimum-wage jobs — are often hit first and hardest by any downturn in the labour market, said Timothy Lang, president and CEO of Youth Employment Services YES in Toronto.  

"We know that there's a lot of people struggling," Lang said.

"We are seeing a large increase in young people seeking our help. We also see parents."

Parents know that a first job can be not just a formative rite of passage, but also an important initial building block toward a life-long career. That's why many parents want to do what they can to help their children tackle the job market.

But Lang said no matter how long your child has been looking for a job, or how frustrated they might be, it's important to not be a helicopter parent. That means resisting the urge to send in applications on behalf of your children, show up to the interview with your teen, or call employers directly to find out why your child didn't get the job.

"Some parents may be well-intentioned, but they don't realize they're actually doing harm when they're not giving their child some independence or letting that young person grow up," he said.

Parents can help and guide in other ways, such as offering resume-writing advice, Lang said. It's also OK to tap your own network to see if anyone you know might be hiring.

"I know some parents feel self-conscious doing that for their own child, but any sort of networking is always helpful because there can be jobs available that just aren't advertised," Lang said. 

"And by tapping that network and getting the young person to understand what you're doing, they actually get better at the concept of networking themselves."

Since young job-seekers are still in the process of growing up, they may lack confidence in face-to-face settings such as interviews, said Bob Williams, general manager of Calaway Park, a Calgary amusement park that each year hires close to 800 young workers.

They also may not be familiar with the norms of the work world, he added. That's where parents can be a huge help, simply by reinforcing the basics.

"Just things like, 'Make eye contact.' Professional attire helps. Punctuality," Williams said. 

Calgary mom Dalyce Semko said she coached her then-16-year-old daughter Eva through a series of mock interviews when Eva was in the process of searching for her first job. 

"She wasn't even very comfortable at that time just going out there and talking to people, and that's something that I think was actually quite common among kids who were at home a lot during COVID — their social skills just didn't develop as much," Semko said.

"So we got out a list of questions that interviewers might like to ask, and practised a lot of Q and A."

Lang said that's a great idea. He said many young people lack confidence when it comes to selling themselves, or don't realize that they have marketable skills they've developed from more casual work experiences like babysitting or lawn-mowing.

"A lot of young people have never even talked about themselves. They feel self-conscious. They think, 'Oh, I don't want to brag about myself,'" Lang said. 

"And so they've got to learn that 'No, this is the one time you've got to.'"

Semko said her daughter did land a job at an Italian restaurant, and still has that job two years later. She said she remembers the day her daughter applied for the position, and all of her interview coaching and preparation paid off.

"I drove her there, and I said, 'Ok, get out. We've practised this a lot. You can go. You can drop off your resume. You can do it,'" Semko recalls, adding she waited in the vehicle while Eva nervously went inside.

"And then she came back to the car and she was just absolutely shaking and excited and laughing. She was like, 'I can't believe I did it!' It was definitely just a thrilling, thrilling challenge for her to take that on and go and apply on her own like that."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 10, 2024.