For many young people in Kelowna, B.C., landing a summer job is taking far longer than expected.
Some have handed out resumé after resumé, only to hear nothing back. Hooman Matin says he visited more than 20 stores before finally getting an interview.
“I didn’t give up and I am happy I didn’t” said Matin. “More than 20 stores before I got an interview.”
His experience reflects a growing trend in Kelowna’s job market.
According to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, Kelowna’s unemployment rate climbed from 6.3 per cent in February to 9.2 per cent in June, making it one of the highest unemployment rates among Canada’s major census metropolitan areas.
The June unemployment rate was also 2.5 percentage points higher than the national average.
In June alone, the region added roughly 2,300 jobs, but nearly 2,900 additional people entered the labour force, pushing the unemployment rate higher.
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Recruitment specialist Kristie Nyrose, owner of KAN Recruitment, says young workers are often competing with experienced candidates who are now applying for entry-level jobs.
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“There are senior people coming into the junior positions,” Nyrose said. “That does bring up the competitiveness of what the roles are.”
She says that makes it especially difficult for students and recent graduates trying to gain their first work experience.
Not every industry is struggling to hire, however. Nyrose says accounting, IT support and specialized administrative roles continue to see demand, while opportunities in construction and hospitality have slowed.
Her advice to job seekers is to tailor every résumé to the position, keep their LinkedIn profile up to date and stay open to opportunities that can help build experience.
For young people trying to get their foot in the door, the biggest challenge isn’t just finding a job, it’s standing out in an increasingly crowded job market.
Kelowna has become an urbanized, gentrified hole. A rich peoples play area.
Highest crime rate in Canada, highest homeless rate in BC, highest drug use in BC. Oh heck, dear lets move to Kelowna and join the party
I see the byline has changed. That used to read, “Has over population in Kelowna made it hard for young people to find work” yesterday. Wow, too many people hitting on the truth about TFWs and immigrants.
If those lazy prks had a job sleeping, they would wake up and quit
My family literally were pioneers! GET THEM OUT OF MY COUNTRY!!! REVOLUTION
Hey Geoffrey. Your Far-Leftist racist and bigoted tirades against the people who overwhelmingly created, built, and developed this country over more than 500 years up to the turn of the millenium is NOT working anymore. No-one cares and no-one is cowering in shame and fear about your accusations of racism and bigotry when people like you only care about foreigners and foreigners alone…….. which you have assigned all sorts of politically correct terms to, while never changing the term you use for the people who created, built and developed the “CANADA” all these foreigners want to immigrate to…… meaning the people you sneerily call “white people”………. you far-left racist bigot.
I am a status carrying First Nation farmer…GET THEM ALL OUT OF MY COUNTRY NOW!!!!!! REVOLUTION!!!!
Do not hire any foreign students before you hire Canadian citizens.
Businesses hire immigrants because half their wages their subsidized by the government meaning you. Your tax dollars goes to these million and billion dollar corporations because they use this program as a scapegoat to get cheap labor. Its a dirty system that you and all other Canadians are funding. Just look at tim Hortons, Walmart they all abuse it and makes millions more from it.
Does increase in immigration have something to do with it, or is the blame just on seniors taking the jobs
Perhaps if your premier believed in prosperity there would be opportunity
Very strange that these young adults and teens in the OK Valley do not view one of Canada’s and the world’s premier tourist destinations which is close by as a place to work. I am referring to the Canadian Rockies, where I worked for 20 years including a summer right out of high school from Kamloops. Tourist industries in the Rockies hire hundreds of foreigners every year from Europe, Australia, Japan and the Phillipines and most provide them with shared accommodation on site, but Canadians living 500 km away don’t seem to know about this……. their “Canadian-ness stops at the OK Valleys booundaries. About 1/3 of the Rockies are in BC, even much, much more if you include the remote north section and the adjacent Columbia Mountains around Revelstoke-Nelson-Blue River.
Geoffrey a.k.a Viraj
There are no job openings because I sponsor my cousins to come here as temporary workers then they just stay here and work for cash, that way they can use food banks and get subsidized housing isn’t Canada great long live Carney !!!
To the people in the comments crying “but white people aren’t getting jobs anymore because of the immigrants”, the article doesn’t mention a statistic unique to the white population, so your whining just sounds bigoted. Who sold the white-owned businesses that used to employ more locals to people who weren’t interested in providing jobs for the local economy? That’s right – the same white people.
Kelowna is a terrible job market for anything but construction, or professional services; businesses advertise “competitive wages” that are a dollar over minimum wage. This isn’t a new phenomenon. And the article would be better with more context, such as how old the person being interviewed is, and what their job experience is.
To the people in the comments crying “but white people aren’t getting jobs anymore because of the immigrants”, the article doesn’t mention a statistic unique to the white population, so you’re whining just sounds bigoted. Who sold the white-owned businesses that used to employ more locals to people who weren’t interested in providing jobs for the local economy? That’s right – the same white people.
import the 3rd world, get the 3rd world, no job for you white person
Can’t find work because we are invaded by the 3rd world and they get picked first because they come with Government subsides, so a friend told me
Immigrants! Are making it harder to find work! TFWs all over the place! Turbans in every delivery van!
Love how the media says ‘over population’. But to mention the truth is censurable. I’m a racist now. Oh well, too bad. Truth is truth.
It is making it harder for everyone to find work.
Nothing to do with the temporary foreign worker program or international student scam then or even the thousands of undocumented immigrants the Liberals have allowed into Canada.
It i not too many people. It is the industry. Every city needs something. Kelowna used to have fruit, and jubs for pickers and pruners. Now they have been bulldozed to build housing. The industry changed to elders. But then the cost of housing went insane. So there is too many elder support people and not enough jobs. – so housing needs to come down to encourage elders, or another industry needs to start up.
It is not people, that is a resource. It is a failing industry.
Why would anyone move to that sht hole to begin with
Slap on a Turban.You will have a job in no time working for the government