Unemployment among young people is worse in Ontario than in Rust Belt states like Indiana and Ohio with the province’s youth jobless crisis being deeply felt in Toronto, a new study finds.

As the minority Liberal government pushes a $295-million program to tackle the problem, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ report exposes some alarming trends.

“The big story is that five years after the Great Recession, youth remain largely shut out of Ontario’s slow economic recovery,” writes Sean Geobey in the 36-page, The Young and the Jobless.

“Help wanted signs might have re-emerged, but Ontario’s young workers find themselves on the outside looking in — and the province’s current youth employment strategy isn’t fast enough or robust enough to turn things around.”

At 16.9 per cent last year, Ontario’s unemployment rate among people aged 15 to 24 rivalled neighbouring Michigan and was higher than Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Only Illinois at 18.5 per cent and New York at 18 per cent fared worse than Ontario.

“Across the Ottawa River, Quebec has also outperformed Ontario, with a considerably lower youth unemployment rate of 13.7 per cent in 2012,” he writes, noting Canada’s national average was 14.3 per cent last year.

Toronto is among the worst in Ontario with 18.1 per cent. By comparison, Hamilton is 13.2 per cent and Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo is 13.8 per cent. Windsor is at 24.7 per cent, Oshawa is at 21.8 per cent, and London is 20.3 per cent.

“In Toronto, the youth joblessness problem is so bad, it’s driving that city’s overall unemployment . . . rate.”

The study points out young Ontarians have been most adversely affected by the “the national economic shift away from manufacturing towards resource extraction.”

As well, “Ontario’s post-recession austerity measures” — by former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty and then treasurer Dwight Duncan — and previous cutbacks dating back to former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris in the 1990s, have taken a toll.

“Quebec has faced similar challenges to its manufacturing sector, yet that province has the lowest gap between adult and youth employment rates. Although Quebec has undertaken some policy shifts after the 2008 recession towards austerity, it has not been as severe as cuts implemented in Ontario,” notes Geobey.

“Nor did Quebec mimic the decade of aggressive service cuts ushered in by the Harris government starting in 1995. In effect, Quebec has implemented policies that led to a shared burden of this past recession,” he writes.

“Ontario has chosen to allow the impact of the recession to rest squarely at the feet of Ontario’s youth.”

Premier Kathleen Wynne insisted Thursday curbing youth unemployment is a key priority, which is why, with political backing from NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, her government this week formally kicked off a two-year program to help young people find jobs.

“The $295-million plan with the youth employment fund . . . is just getting started,” Wynne said.

“We’re just into it. Ask me in six months. I want to see results,” the premier said of the program that encourages companies to hire and train young workers through subsidies of up to $6,800.

“I want to know how many young people have gotten placements. I want to know where the employers are who have taken young people in and are training them and are providing them with options and then I want to know how many of those training opportunities actually lead to jobs,” she said.

“You better believe we’re going to be looking for results. It’s just too early to have those results.”

Geobey, a University of Waterloo doctoral candidate and a McConnell Fellow with the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience, admits in his report that “the shape and impact of these programs remains to be seen.”

But he expressed some concerns about the scheme offsetting the wages and job training costs of new employees.

“Care must be taken . . . to ensure that these subsidized positions do not displace future permanent positions and that the program doesn’t simply encourage the phenomenon of precarious employment in Ontario,” his report states.

“The government has expressed its intent to monitor the quality of employer job placements. Enforcement and monitoring will be critical to the integrity of the intention of this program.”

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Also included in the Liberals’ $295-million strategy is $45 million to bankroll young entrepreneurs and a $30 million innovation fund to bring their ideas to market.

“The programs respond directly to the lack of access to capital that young entrepreneurs face. But it remains unclear how large these loans will be,” writes Geobey.

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