Working through the Unknowns: Canadian Youth's Experience of Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The changes to our daily lives brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic were significant, and by now, well established. Suddenly we were having to deal with lockdowns, stay-at-home orders and social distancing, the closure of schools and daycares for in-person learning, and carrying out our paid work, if possible, at home. Those who couldn’t work at home, in the medical profession, emergency services and essential retail like grocery stores and pharmacies, dealt with unprecedented occupational health and safety unknowns, particularly during the early phases of the pandemic, information about which was slowly revealed in unfolding scientific developments. Youth were among those particularly affected. This study conducts a media analysis of the trends and experiences of young workers during this time. Its aim is to explore early assessments of the effect the pandemic will have on their career trajectories over the longer term. This helps to develop needed information on this demographic, whose plight in the face of the pandemic’s other social, health, and economic repercussions, has not had the attention it deserves. The article concludes with recommendations for the empirical research needed to support young workers’ transition to adulthood in the coming years.