Premiers Doug Ford and David Eby are on opposite sides of the debate surrounding youth employment, according to media reports.

Ford claimed Tuesday that young people unable to find work aren't looking "hard enough," despite Statistics Canada reporting Ontario lost 26,000 jobs in August, the highest in any province.

Meanwhile, Eby criticized the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program, with his cabinet promising to defend youth employment.

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Premier Eby calls out a Starbucks and Boston Pizza in BC for trying to hire temporary foreign workers as managers.

It's "corrosive and problematic," he says, adding "predatory employers" shouldn't be able to use the program "to depress wages" or "deny opportunities." pic.twitter.com/SRvX73Kkhy

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 10, 2025

Addressing the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Tuesday, Premier Ford expressed his frustration with youth not finding work. “I assure you, if you look hard enough, it... may be in fast food or something else, but you'll find a job."

That contrasts B.C. Jobs Minister, Ravi Kahlon, who affirmed the province's focus on youth employment. "We are continuing our work in B.C. to ensure they have the skills they need to succeed in a changing economy through our commitment to make post-secondary education more affordable and accessible."

StatsCan highlighted a challenging summer job market for students, noting that the unemployment rate for returning students aged 15 to 24 was 17.9 per cent during the period from May to August. It’s the highest summer unemployment rate since 2009.

National youth unemployment (15-24) is 14.5%, a 0.1% decrease from July, which was the highest non-pandemic level since September 2010.

'It's deleterious to Canadian citizens': Ezra Levant debates Christina Santini on temporary foreign workers

'The number of temporary foreign workers has skyrocketed, and I believe it's deleterious to Canadian citizens, especially young Canadian citizens, wanting to get in on the… pic.twitter.com/PPFnKhz75j

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 9, 2025

Premier Eby last week suggested closing the TFW program and reiterated it Tuesday, citing federal data that B.C. approvals fell almost twice the Canadian average.

B.C. saw temporary foreign worker positions drop by 37% to 11,000 in Q1 2025 compared to last year, while the rest of Canada experienced a 20.5% decline since federal changes last September.

In Q1, over 51,000 temporary foreign worker positions were nationally approved following positive labour market impact assessments.

Canada lost 66,000 jobs last month, raising the unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent with 1.6 million unemployed, an increase of 34,000 from July.

“Those who were unemployed in July continued to face difficulties finding work in August,” said StatsCan. “Just 15.2 per cent of those who were unemployed in July had found work in August, lower than the corresponding proportion for the same months from 2017 to 2019.”

Canada loses 40k jobs in July under Carney's leadership

Job losses disproportionately affect youth (15-24), with their employment rate at 53.6%, the lowest since November 1998.https://t.co/ihxZFDgTAi

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) August 10, 2025

In August, Windsor (11.1%), Oshawa (9%), and Toronto (8.9%) recorded Canada's highest jobless rates among the 20 largest census metropolitan areas. Metro Vancouver's job market is also feeling the sting of recent high-profile layoffs.

Last month, B.C. experienced one of Canada's largest employment declines, losing 16,000 jobs (0.5%), marking the second straight month of losses and raising the unemployment rate to 6.2%.

Ontario's August unemployment fell to 7.7% from 7.9% in July, but only because fewer people sought work, according to StatsCan. The province shed 26,000 jobs last month, the most in Canada.