In Ontario, the first job used to mean something. It was your first paycheque, your first team, your first boss. Whether it was working the fryer at a restaurant, standing behind the cash register at the mall, or stocking shelves at the grocery store, these roles weren’t glamorous, but they were formative. They gave young people a sense of independence, good habits, and confidence.
Today, those jobs are quietly disappearing—not because the work has vanished, but because it’s no longer going to Ontario’s youth.
Entry-level positions across the province are increasingly being filled by temporary foreign workers and international students. This is a direct result of federal labour and immigration policy that’s distorting the entry-level market and crowding out local teens. Recent figures from inside Immigration Minister Lena Diab’s department count 3,049,277 temporary residents nationwide, including 129,653 who are now in Canada illegally due to expired permits. That’s in addition to the more than half a million undocumented migrants believed to be staying in Canada, according to a 2024 government briefing note.
Meanwhile, the post-COVID explosion of international student programs has misaligned with Ontario’s actual labour market needs. While career colleges like Conestoga have prioritized revenue-driven international recruitment, they’ve focused heavily on business management programs instead of in-demand fields like health care, skilled trades, or STEM.
This has failed to address a critical labour shortage, all while creating underemployment among international graduates, further clogging the job market for lower-skill roles. At Conestoga, for example, students report significant job scarcity, with many unable to find work despite persistent efforts, reflecting a saturated market that disadvantages both international and domestic youth.
The federal cap on study permits announced in 2024, reducing Ontario’s intake by up to 50 percent, acknowledges this strain. Colleges now face revenue losses and layoffs. This is the result of an unsustainable model that grew too quickly, prioritized tuition revenue over strategic labour market integration, and left Ontario youth struggling to secure early-career opportunities in a system flooded with competition.
These are serious federal problems, but they are being compounded by provincial acts of abdication. Queen’s Park has stood by while Ontario’s entry-level job market has become distorted. Worse, it has layered on provincial policies that make it harder and less attractive for businesses to hire young, inexperienced workers in the first place, all while promoting policies that encourage the employment of newcomers. Even if Ottawa needs to fix its broken labour visa system, Queen’s Park is not off the hook. Ontario controls the labour and regulatory environment that employers navigate every day, and that environment is failing our youth. A worsening youth jobs crisis Youth unemployment in Ontario currently sits at 15.8 percent, above the national average. For teenagers aged 15–19, the rate is even worse at 22.2 percent. That’s nearly one in four teens who want a job and can’t get one. And yet, restaurants, warehouses, and retailers are still hiring, just not locally. Why? Because Ontario has made it prohibitively expensive and risky to take a chance on an inexperienced worker. Since 2017, the minimum wage has jumped from $11.60 to $17.60 per hour (effective as of October 2025)—a 52 percent increase in just eight years, with automatic annual escalators locked in by legislation. That’s before you factor in payroll taxes, scheduling requirements, and other employment standards that apply equally to every worker, regardless of age or experience. These rules assume that all workers are interchangeable; that a 16-year-old working evenings after school should be treated the same as a 40-year-old supporting a household. These policy choices have real-world consequences: businesses hire the candidate who poses the least risk and delivers the most productivity per dollar. And that’s rarely someone just starting out. The result is a system that prices young people out of their own labour market. Small businesses—especially in retail, hospitality, and seasonal sectors—used to be the launchpad for young workers. Today, many believe they can’t justify bringing on someone with zero experience at a full adult wage rate. Others streamline operations or automate roles entirely. Most of these employers still need workers, so they pursue more structured and predictable options such as hiring international students or labour through temporary foreign worker streams. This is the result of bad policy. We’ve allowed federal immigration programs to flood Ontario’s entry-level job market while local youth are sidelined. It is now often easier, cheaper, and more predictable for employers to hire someone on a visa than a teenager from their own community. That’s not smart labour policy, and Ontario can’t keep pretending it’s someone else’s problem. What Ontario should do First, Ontario needs to increase its pressure on the federal government to dramatically reform broken immigration programs that have contributed to this problem. But more importantly, within its own jurisdiction, Ontario needs to make entry-level jobs viable again. There’s a broader conversation to be had about minimum wage policy across the board, but even without overhauling the system, we can and should act immediately to fix how it’s failing young people. That starts by implementing a youth wage that is set meaningfully lower than the minimum wage—say, $12 per hour for workers under 18. A lower wage floor would give businesses more flexibility to hire for potential, not for age and perceived polish. Ontario should also consider offering targeted tax relief or payroll incentives to small businesses that hire first-time Canadian workers or employees under the age of 25. If the province can offer tax credits for hiring co-op students and subsidize training programs through employers, surely it can offer similar support to businesses that hire teenagers for their first job. And just as importantly, we should start treating youth unemployment as a core provincial metric. If we’re serious about growing a resilient, future-ready workforce, we need to care about the civic responsibility we have to those being left out of it today. The bigger picture This isn’t a niche issue. It’s a foundational one. A generation that doesn’t get to start working until their mid-20s is already behind. Work builds responsibility, financial literacy, time management, and self-worth. Entry-level jobs do more than just prepare young people for work; they also prepare them for life, placing them firmly on a path towards career satisfaction, economic stability, marriage, starting a family, and contributing to their community. In an unprecedented moment of technological advancement, online alienation, the potential for radicalization, even lower birth rates, the continued “sick man” in Canada’s economy could be led again by providing hope and a future to the thousands presently at risk of failing to launch. Right now, be it intentionally or unintentionally, Ontario is prioritizing foreign workers and pushing its youngest workers to the sidelines. Policymakers got this wrong. We need an urgent course-correction that restores Ontario’s upward social mobility. Let’s rebuild the first rung of the economic ladder and give the next generation a chance to climb.
Matt Spoke is a contributor to Project Ontario, a grassroots political initiative focused on renewing and strengthening conservative leadership in Ontario. It was born from a growing sense among many conservatives that Ontario is at a crossroads and needs a clear, principled vision for the future. Learn more at https://projectontario.ca/
Alexander Brown is also a contributor to Project Ontario and the director of the National Citizens Coalition.
