The summer job market is looking thin for Calgary students

Final exams have begun for post-secondary students in Alberta, but many are already worried about finding summer jobs.

Shazia Jinnah Morsett is president of the University of Calgary Student Union and says summer employment doesn't look promising for students.

“I'm having trouble finding a job right now.” he says. “Students don't have the opportunity to work and earn the dollars they need to support themselves.”

Jinnah Morsett says finding seasonal work has become more difficult over the past five years after the provincial UCP government called for the Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) to be scrapped.

The STEP program subsidized wages for employers and encouraged students to hire during the summer months.

“It's really disappointing because we've had solutions in the past that have helped students find summer jobs, not just summer jobs in general, but summer jobs,” says Gina Morsett.

“The obstacle is money. Funding is not in (companies') budgets, so they're looking for programs to help subsidize it.”

Without the program, he said, many students would end up taking jobs that don't match their career goals to pay for food and books. He says it's rare to find a post-secondary student who doesn't balk at the need to pay tuition.

Jinnah Morsett believes that having a government-supported student work program is the bare minimum.

The STEP program was first introduced in 1972 and was abolished by the Progressive Conservatives in 2013 before being reinstated by the NDP in 2016.