Young people who can’t find work aren’t looking “hard enough,” Premier Doug Ford said Tuesday, less than a week after Statistics Canada reported Ontario shed 26,000 jobs in August 鈥 the most of any province.
The remarks during a breakfast speech to the 海角社区官网Region Board of Trade earned the premier rebukes from opposition party leaders, who accused him of being out of touch with a tough job market as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs take a toll on the economy.听
鈥淚t drives me nuts when I see young, healthy people and they鈥檒l call me saying, ‘I can鈥檛 find a job,’” Ford told the crowd. “I assure you, if you look hard enough, it 鈥 may be in fast food or something else, but you鈥檒l find a job.鈥
While Ontario’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 per cent in August from 7.9 per cent in July, it was because fewer people were looking for work, .听
The jobless level makes Ontario one of five provinces with unemployment above the national average of 7.1 per cent, a level that is the highest nationwide since May 2016, not including the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The youth unemployment rate nationally, for ages 15 to 24, is 14.5 per cent. That’s down 0.1 per cent from July, when it hit the highest level non-pandemic level since September 2010.听
Three Ontario cities 鈥 Windsor at 11.1 per cent, Oshawa at nine per cent and 海角社区官网at 8.9 per cent 鈥 had the jobless highest rates of the country’s 20 largest census metropolitan areas in August, according to Statistics Canada, which noted Ontario has lost 66,000 jobs since the trade war began in February.听
The numbers show the premier’s comments are offside, said New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles, urging the premier to “take some responsibility” for the unemployment situation instead of deflecting blame.
“Doug Ford has no idea what real people, regular people, are dealing with right now,” Stiles told reporters at the legislature. “He needs to get out there and actually listen to real people 鈥 and not just his pollsters.”
础苍听Abacus Data poll聽last month put Ford’s Progressive Conservatives at an all-time high of 53 per cent support compared to 27 per cent for the Liberals under Bonnie Crombie, 12 per cent for Stiles and the NDP, and five per cent for Mike Schreiner’s Green Party.听
“He has no one to blame but the guy in the mirror because he’s had seven years to address this issue and to blame young people 鈥 is shockingly insensitive,” Crombie said of the premier.
Ford, who used the speech to tout billions of dollars in measures he has unveiled聽to offset the impact of tariffs聽in hard-hit sectors like steel, aluminum and automotive, told the board of trade audience that Ontario is short 230,000 skilled workers.
“We need to match the people up with the jobs. It may not always be in the area that they want or the sector they want, but we have to start picking up productivity,” he said.
With files from Moira Welsh
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