Summer 2010: Student Employment at 67 %, Unemployment at 20 %

On 11 August 2010 the Canadian Education Project released a new report on Canadian university student participation in the labour force during summer 2010. Data from a panel survey of university students collected by CanEd during June 2010 showed that just over two-thirds of students were employed for an average of 34 hours per week, which is roughly in line with long-term averages. However, the data also showed that student unemployment, at just under 20%, was nearly double the rate reported by Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey.

The full report can be accessed here.

Report Finds Lack of Financial Aid Literacy among Students

The third and final Canadian Student Survey report was released by the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations. The survey and report, which were conducted, administered and analyzed by The Canadian Education Project explored financial aid literacy among Canadian university students. Canada has a complicated student loan system, and these loans are allocated to students, individuals with the least amount of experience with consumer loans. The research explored this “perfect storm” for illiteracy and loan defaults and found that:

• Students were very poorly informed about the details of the government financial aid system.
• A large number of students were unaware of aid that might be available to them.
• Many students who had loans did not know the basic details about repayment.
• Sources of financial aid information impacted student knowledge.

The complete report is available online here.



For other recent reports including the 2007, 2008, and 2009 budget commentaries please see our Publications page.