The Diversity Institute and the Future Skills Centre released the Labour Market Implications for Racialized Youth Report, examining the labour market participation of racialized youth and barriers to employment. According to the study, 75% of Canadian organizations noted that they found it challenging to recruit skilled labour in 2021, compared to 68%  in 2013. Despite the fact that Canada ranks higher among OECD countries in terms of advanced education, racialized youth face unique barriers in the labour market.

The report highlights that systemic discrimination, racism, unequal access to resources and support, and often less advantageous socioeconomic circumstances impede racialized youth’s upward social mobility. Recently, there has been a marked increase in the number of programs at the national, provincial, and local levels targeting youth and specifically targeting racialized youth and other equity-deserving populations. The implementation of these programs has been noted to be more fragmented and lacking coordination, as a result, significant opportunities exist to develop comprehensive frameworks and to scale such frameworks to generate transformational impacts.