OTTAWA – More young people than ever before are getting work this summer through a federal jobs program, more than the government itself planned for this year.
The federal government says it has approved more than 7,000 additional jobs for the Canada Summer Jobs program on top of the 70,000 planned for 2016.
Among the hires are a number of newly arrived Syrian refugees, aboriginals, and youth with disabilities, although the exact breakdown of those figures is not immediately available.
Get breaking National news
READ MORE: Student group wants Liberals to spend $3.3B annually on free college, university
The government had pledged in the budget to add $339 million over three years to the summer jobs program to double the number of placements each year for students working at not-for-profit organizations, public sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.
Applications from small businesses to hire summer students through the government program was up almost one-third from last year.
In all, there will be 13,373 students working at small businesses this summer, a four-fold increase from last year.
Comments