A record 54,000 people signed up for a summer job fair held in Toronto this July. (Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images) · Nick Lachance via Getty Images
Job postings in Canada’s tech sector have retreated sharply since their early-2022 peak, a report from Indeed Canada says, with listings for junior roles now 25 per cent fewer than before the pandemic.
Those jobs, which traditionally give new graduates a foothold in the industry, are vanishing just as young Canadians are facing their toughest job market in years.
The Indeed report and another from CIBC Economics, both published this week, suggest these trends are colliding in ways that could reshape Canada’s early career landscape. The CIBC report shows unemployment among 15- to 24-year-olds has climbed to “levels typically seen only during recessionary periods” — a surge of more than 5.5 percentage points since mid-2022 — and adds that the trend in the youth employment-to-population ratio is “even more worrying.” Indeed’s report finds the tech sector has frozen out newcomers even as senior roles hold steady.
“It’s in the standard and junior-level jobs where the market is especially weak and it comes at a time when overall Canadian youth unemployment is quite elevated,” said Brendon Bernard, senior economist at Indeed. He points to a broader, economy-wide shift captured in Statistics Canada data — in early 2023, about half of all job postings were open to candidates with a year or less of experience; by early 2025, that share had dropped to 41 per cent.
In his report, CIBC economist Andrew Grantham notes that while part of the weakness in youth employment can be explained by a population surge — with international students and non-permanent residents increasing competition for entry-level positions — supply pressures aren’t the whole story.
“One possible reason is that the jobs typically undertaken by young people are also the ones most at risk from technological change, including AI,” Grantham wrote. He points out that youth are faring worse in industries with heavy exposure to automation, such as business support services and professional occupations — a pattern not seen in less AI-sensitive sectors.
When manufacturing fell off in earlier decades, it was often younger workers who suddenly had their career prospects really hit. That is definitely a risk for people just entering the tech market now.Brendon Bernard, Indeed Canada
That uneven impact is also showing up inside tech itself, the Indeed report notes. Senior and managerial positions remain above pre-pandemic levels, but postings for standard and junior titles have plunged, shutting out those at the start of their careers. Bernard notes that while roles tied directly to AI — such as machine learning engineers, data engineers and data centre technicians — still show elevated demand, they aren’t accessible to most graduates.
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