The Doug Ford government yet to outline a jobs strategy as young workers face summer of unemployment
A Report from Data Shows, a professional, non-partisan data gathering venue based in Ontario, Canada
Posted May 12th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
No matter how many times Doug Ford repeats his pitch that Ontario is open for business or buys ads telling voters they are being protected, the monthly data keeps saying the opposite.
Statistics Canada’s April Labour Force Survey pegged Ontario unemployment rate at 7.5 per cent, third-highest in Canada, with young worker unemployment at 17.7 per cent, worst in the country. There were 672,900 unemployed workers in Ontario in April.
And with college and university students about to finish their terms and find fewer opportunities and more competition the labour market, the number of unemployed Ontarians appears posed to rise substantially into the summer. But the provincial government is yet to outline a jobs strategy.
Unemployment rate for workers aged 15 to 24 in April, 2026 (seasonally adjusted)
Ford’s opposition unveiled its summer jobs plan to the legislature Monday. Leader Marit Stiles promoted a plan to fund municipality and tourism jobs for workers under 30 years old.
Slow growth isn’t just from failure to protect from Trump.
The problems in Ontario extend beyond Ford’s failure to protect the provincial economy from Donald Trump’ tariff attack. Ontario’s economic growth was second-lowest in Canada in 2025 and 2024, before Trump came to office. It was third-lowest in 2023.
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Data Shows editor Tom Parkin
Data Shows’ editor is Tom Parkin. Contact me with interesting data, data chart or a guest piece you’d like to submit to Data Shows: tparkin@impact-strategies.ca .
Tom Parkin@tparkin Canadian columnist and commentator with a bluntly social democratic perspective. I write a lot about data that matters to our everyday lives. But sometimes it’s just plain opinion.
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