I recently had a LinkedIn conversation with my friend Brendon, who’s a Senior Economist at Indeed.

He shared a graph that’s been sitting with me ever since.

It shows the unemployment rate among recent grads under 25 who are no longer in school. The story it tells is stark:

Youth joblessness nearly doubled in 2 years—*and the worst may be yet to come.*

In just two years, we’ve gone from the lowest youth unemployment rate in decades to one of the highest—and that’s before any major external shocks like tariffs have fully landed. As Brendon put it, “The shock hasn’t even hit yet. This is long term build up.” It’s going to get worse before it gets better—buckle up.

But FIRST

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Ready for some real talk?

Brendon noted that this trend has been quietly building for some time. And another voice joined the thread—Guy, Principal Economist at LinkedIn—who confirmed this isn’t just a Canada problem. The US is seeing similar headwinds.

So here's the question that keeps coming up for me:

If degrees alone no longer open doors, what should we really be preparing young people for?

This is the kind of stuff that fires me up.

The world’s changing fast, and waiting around for a job to land isn’t the move anymore.

The future belongs to the ones who know how to build—who think globally, adapt quickly, and aren’t afraid to carve their own path when there isn’t one..

With the Canadian election on the horizon (Apr 28), it feels more urgent than ever to move beyond short-term fixes. Instead of just promising “more jobs", "more investments", what if we focused on building an economy where starting something of your own actually feels possible?

We need to be asking big, bold questions about how we’re supporting the next generation—right here at home and beyond our borders.

Make your vote count.

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PS. This summer, we are going to tackle pressing global issues and drive innovation in regions (such as your own community) where it is needed the most. Want in?

We run a summer cohort for ambitious youth (high school and undergrads) to work directly with world-class founders while learning from Silicon Valley leaders.

OCE Summer Cohort

You can also explore purposeful opportunities through our Impact Internship Opportunities Database.

Get Curious.

Lena

https://www.openclassroomexperience.com/