Young Quebec male graduates are ‘struggling’: IDQ report

The economic gloom hits young men with university degrees harder, according to a report by the Institut du Québec (IDQ).

The unemployment rate for young men fresh out of university is 11.4 per cent in Quebec. This is almost double the 6.6 per cent unemployment rate for women in the same situation.

They are also faring worse than all young men aged 22-26, whose unemployment rate is 9.9 per cent.

The past year has been difficult for all young people, who are struggling to find their first job. “When we look more closely, we see that it’s mainly men who are struggling,” noted IDQ President and CEO Emna Braham.

Nearly half of the jobs created over the past three years were in the health and education sectors, which have a higher number of female university graduates, explained Braham. Traditionally male-dominated sectors, such as transportation and construction, have been hit hard by the economic downturn.

Despite the challenging environment for traditionally male-dominated sectors, female university graduates are still at a disadvantage compared to their male counterparts, earning, on average, 9 per cent less.

Even with this gap, it is generally very advantageous for a woman to pursue a university education.

The hourly rate for a woman aged 22-26 with a bachelor’s degree will be, on average, 35 per cent higher than that of a worker with a high school diploma or less. In the same situation, the gap is smaller for young men, at 25 per cent.

Jobs traditionally held by men without university degrees are generally better paid than female-dominated occupations with the same level of education.

Braham fears that young men will be discouraged from pursuing a university education, given that they are already less likely than women to pursue higher education.

“With a job market where it’s more difficult to find employment opportunities, some men might see a little less benefit in investing time and money in going to university.”

On the contrary, university education pays off, even for men, she emphasized. “From the beginning of their careers, a man will earn 25 per cent more, on average, with a university degree than with a high school diploma or less. Moreover, this wage advantage will increase over the years, reaching 62 per cent by mid-career.”

A university degree also provides the tools to better adapt to technological changes in the workplace, Braham argued.

“Degrees, especially university degrees, make people less vulnerable to these technological changes,” she argued. Not only because we’re able to adapt to our current job, but also because we’re able to retrain and look for a new job if ours is completely replaced by a machine.”

Young Quebecers aren’t the only ones facing a difficult job market. In addition to the economic downturn, experts have attributed these difficulties to artificial intelligence, as companies seek ways to use this technology to perform certain tasks.

Could this explain the difficulties facing young graduates in Quebec?

“That was a hypothesis we had, but the data doesn’t clearly show that story,” replied Braham, who pointed out that economic uncertainty likely played a greater role in the challenges faced by young people.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews