DWA’s Youth Survey will help get youth back to work
In today’s economy things are tough so job seekers need an edge to gain a foothold in the marketplace.
The Durham Workforce Authority (DWA) wants to help, especially youth between the ages of 15 and 24. The organization is conducting a Youth Survey designed to address employment issues of young workers.
The survey is easy to complete online by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/durhamyouthsurvey
It asks a series of 38 questions about you such as your level of education, job status, what types of employment you’re seeking, what skill sets you possess and whether or not you’re aware of youth services and programs in Durham Region. It takes about 20 minutes to fill out and for your time DWA will be making a draw for an iPad. Anyone who fills out the survey is automatically entered into the draw.
“The DWA and its community partners want to ensure that we address our youth unemployment issue, and the first step in understanding is to seek feedback from our youth. The survey results will be shared widely and be used to make future programming recommendations,” said DWA Executive Director Heather McMillan.
A recent DWA labour market plan measuring unemployment for three months, October to December 2012 found youth unemployment was 4.5 times that of all other unemployment. The unemployment rate for individuals aged 15 to 24, Oshawa CMA in December 2012, was a startling 23 per cent, the overall unemployment rate for the same CMA was 6.2 per cent. Toronto’s youth unemployment was slightly better at 15 per cent.
It’s vital to reverse this trend as Durham Region’s youth play a key role in the region’s economic success today and in the future.
In an interview with www.durhamregion.com Maralyn Tassone, executive director for Durham Region Unemployed Help Centre, said young people have to start making money in order to buy houses, cars and essentially drive Durham’s economy.
“If we don’t have young people who are actually getting jobs with a reasonable wage … I shudder to think what’s going to happen to Canada’s economy,” she said.
For more information about the Youth Survey or the other work DWA is involved in visit http://www.durhamwa.ca