Carol Phillips, Research Co-ordinator, NCO; Jeffrey Boggs, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Tourism Studies; and Charles Conteh, Director, NCO.There is a serious mismatch between youth education levels and employment opportunities in Niagara, says new Brock University research.
The Niagara region houses both a comprehensive university and a community college that produce highly educated young people, notes a policy brief produced by the Niagara Community Observatory (NCO) and released Wednesday, Nov. 15.
Yet the vast majority of Niagara jobs are in the low-skilled accommodation, food services and retail trade sectors, says the brief, “Youth Employment in Niagara: Mapping the Opportunities.” The brief examines the opportunities for those between the ages of 15 and 29.
“We have is a situation where the skills that we generate often times don’t get used or leveraged,” says NCO director Charles Conteh. “This brief is a first step that gives us a map of that mismatch in youth employment.”
The Top 3 categories in which Niagara’s youth earn credentials are:
- health and related fields
- business, management and public administration
- architecture, engineering and related technologies
Yet, the Top 3 employers are in the sectors of:
- accommodation and food services
- retail trade
- administrative, waste management and remediation
The brief notes that 39.7 per cent of youth — or two out of every five between the ages of 20 and 24 — work in the hotel, food and retail industries.
Conteh notes that, although Niagara youth employment numbers are higher than other areas, the numbers don’t necessarily indicate that youth are doing well in the region, given where many of them are employed.
“Those are very precarious sectors, with many part-time jobs, shift work and low wages,” says Conteh. “We have a region that may have relatively decent employment numbers, but high rates of poverty and gross inequality. Much of that is explained by the mismatch.”
Many youth end up leaving Niagara, he says. “We’re pumping out talent for other regions.”
The brief also contains maps of where different types of jobs are located across the region, based on bi-national research the NCO conducted with the University at Buffalo.
The NCO partnered with Niagara Connects to launch the brief Wednesday through a webinar, the first time that the Brock research group has done so.
“Now we have this platform that enables many individuals to participate in the comfort of the office, home or anywhere and be part of this very important conversation,” says Conteh.
He says the next step will be to fully analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Niagara labour market using the most recent 2016 Census data, and to discuss with policy makers, governments, business, community leaders and others on what measures could be created to retain youth and provide jobs that match their skills levels.
