Is Now a Bad Time to Enter The Workforce?

Statistics Canada Thinks It Is

I have been hearing from many people recently that they are having a hard time finding work. This is not just anecdotal, Stats Canada came out with their most recent labour force survey and the unemployment rate is sitting at 6.4% as of June 2024 and has increased 1.3% in total since April 2023 which was a recent low (low = good). Among these groups, returning students (those who are going back to school in the fall) are at their lowest June employment numbers since June 1998. You may be saying not a big deal, students still have time to figure things out. While this is true, they are also the future of the labour market, and one of the most common ways for students to find their full time employment is through their summer internships or other jobs. If there are fewer students interning and less work for students overall I think this is a concerning development.

I think this lower student employment rate, and the overall high unemployment rate are leading indicators that we are heading for stagnation or even some form of a quiet depression. After having conversations with people from many different industries and hearing by word of mouth from friends of friends, a lot of companies are holding off on hiring right now, because there may be some level of uncertainty about whether their clients will continue to be in business in the coming year or two. This is leading to hesitation across the board regarding hiring people, and especially for new grads. This is making it even more challenging since companies that are shrinking their workforce or looking to hire would rather hire one senior person who can do the work of two people rather than hiring two junior people who need training.

Signs of a Drawn Out Downturn?

Of the types of economic downturns, in this case specifically a job market downturn. It is almost better to have a COVID-like situation where people get hit very hard but can bounce back relatively quickly. A long, slow, protracted downturn, meanwhile, may be felt by fewer people as a whole, but for those who do feel it they will not get a lot of relief in the coming years. It has become apparent that although the Bank of Canada has cut rates, the effect of the rate cuts will be fairly muted, as borrowing power only improves marginally for those looking to take out loans such as a mortgage and businesses are still hesitant to borrow money in order to invest. Because leverage is expensive as a whole right now, we will likely see less economic growth. In order for a business to get a good return on their investment they will need a rather high ROI to justify their cost of borrowing and justify a higher risk investment when a relatively risk free investment is still hovering around 3-4%. With inflation coming down below the risk free rate, there is almost no reason for businesses or investors to look towards higher risk investments which means that less money overall will circulate through the economy.

Canada is also in a special situation because we are always welcoming new highly skilled workers into the country, this could be a good thing for businesses because if there is more demand for their jobs they can theoretically pay a lower rate and get the same output. From the workers side this puts them in an unfortunate situation, they will have to find a way to stand out from the crowd or accept a much lower wage at a time when the cost of living is not improving much.

Real Estate Indicators of Slowing Growth

From the real estate side we are seeing some relief in the rental market, as a recent rentals.ca report showed the year over year rental prices in June 2024 were similar or lower in some of the larger metro areas compared to this time last year. We can also look to the resale market and the pile of inventory that is building up, especially in some segments such as condos. This has yet to manifest in much lower prices, but there are some individual great deals for those who are looking. The market is a whole isn’t seeing much price pressure likely due to the fact that owners are finding a way to hold on until they get the price they are looking for and aren’t in a rush to sell. The number of truly “distressed” sales has only increased marginally anecdotally speaking and banks have been instructed to help those who are in distressed situations to manage their real estate. We likely won’t see a significant decline in prices in the coming years, but prices may slide slowly downward until borrowing becomes a bit more affordable.

I do foresee a time in the next 3-5 years as things improve with respect to borrowing costs that prices will jump up due to the lack of new construction sales. New condo projects have been taking longer to sell and fewer people have been purchasing them. This also corroborates my previous point about lower investment as we’ve reached a point in Toronto where about 50% of condos are owned by investors which means that they are soon to be the majority of the potential buyers, if not already are, and if investors are not investing their money, condos are not going to be built. If condos are not built, there will be less housing while more people continue to come to the Toronto area which simply supply and demand says higher prices.

Potential Improvements in Student Economics

Another interesting development has been the cap on student visas. On balance I view this as a positive development as I believe the intention of capping them was to prevent predatory “career” schools from taking advantage of students and not providing them a proper education. I quite frankly see nothing wrong with this, although it may inconvenience people who were all but too happy to take advantage of these students whether for cheap labour or for absurdly high tuition fees. The only potential downside to this is that some reputable institutions may lose some of the funding they were anticipating from international students and have to make cuts. But again, I see nothing wrong with a little competition, and competition breeds innovation, so maybe in the end this will turn out to be a positive development across the board. I also see positives when looking at student adjacent market such as the student rental market around campuses.

They will likely become somewhat less competitive with this change. I recall from my time at university that it was truly a crapshoot trying to find a half decent student house. The number of questionable landlords who didn’t take care of their properties was high, the inability of students to clean up after themselves was bad, the SERIOUS lack of supply was horrendous. Overall, there were frequently poor outcomes and often just plain unsafe living conditions. So some relief in that regard is well overdue in those markets. Although, I’m not certain that this will affect the larger universities who may not be as highly affected by the student visa quota. Interestingly, Graduate level visas have not been affected at all which is in line with the concept that Canada is interested in highly skilled workers. (although arguably our problem is with trades workers not highly skilled workers).

Signals from The United States

Interestingly though, if you look to our friends in the south (the US) their stock markets are continuing to do well, which is arguably signaling that things are improving over there and there is confidence that they will continue to improve. The US employment rate is still hovering around an all time high (a positive development) and since they have a more diverse economy they are more resilient overall. You can’t predict the market, but generally when I look at my portfolio and get very happy that is usually a sign that it’s time to sell some of it and cut down on the risk. However, I’m more of a buy and hold type of investor rather than a time the market investor, so I’ll probably just ride whatever wave comes and try to build up some cash in order to purchase any opportunities that may come along in the next little while.

It will be interesting to see how all of these different aspects of the economy develop in the next couple of years, I will be following them closely and doing my best to keep you up to date on them. Hopefully you found this discussion interesting. Feel free to let me know your thoughts any time, I’m always interested to talk economics.

Keep investing,

Oliver