Nineteen-year-old Mireya Martinez spent the summer of 2024 applying for entry-level jobs the traditional way — submitting applications through websites and social media, hoping someone would notice. "It was very much like shooting in the dark," she says. "You're applying and not knowing exactly what is happening." By the time she landed a part-time role as a peer worker with The Neighbourhood Group, a social agency serving 40,000 low-income families in Toronto, she had learned a hard lesson that millions of young people face: you need experience to get hired, but you can't land that first job.
Toronto's youth are trapped in this bind at unprecedented scale. One in five young Torontonians is now unemployed — a 20 per cent rate that reflects a broader crisis. Rising housing costs, a weakened economy, and employers holding onto older workers in roles that might otherwise go to young people have created a perfect storm. For Martinez, the stakes felt personal. Her mother lost her job that same summer. "I felt like I needed to take responsibility," she says.
The challenge runs deeper than numbers. A Youth Employment Postcard Report released in 2025, drawing responses from more than 7,000 young people, found that nearly 60 per cent said their identity — race, age, language, gender, or disability — created barriers to employment. Systemic bias isn't incidental; it's structural.
In response, the City of Toronto, United Way Greater Toronto, and community organizations including The Neighbourhood Group have launched the Toronto Youth Employment Strategy, a coordinated effort designed to create 10,000 jobs for young people by 2027. Unlike earlier mentorship programs, this initiative pivots toward direct sponsorship: connecting young people with career professionals willing to "see a light and a potential in [them], and open a door for them," according to Nation Cheong, vice-president of community impact and mobilization at United Way Greater Toronto.
The shift signals a recognition that mentorship alone — valuable as it has been — isn't enough in a landscape where entry-level roles that once served as crucial stepping stones are disappearing. Technological change has made career pathways uncertain. Young people need more than guidance; they need advocates.
At the heart of the strategy is an employment table bringing together municipal departments, community agencies, and private-sector partners to coordinate hiring across sectors. The results are already tangible. United Way's network of community organizations has committed to hiring approximately 2,000 young people by this summer — a 20 per cent contribution toward the overall target.
For Toronto Deputy Mayor Amber Morley, youth champion and representative for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, this investment is about far more than economics. "We know that healthy communities invest in their young people," she says. Creating job opportunities can address not only unemployment but also the social challenges that follow: youth violence, gun violence, and the despair that comes from being locked out of opportunity. What matters most, she emphasizes, is sustained commitment — moving beyond "piecemeal" funding toward programs young people can depend on long-term.
For Martinez and thousands like her, the strategy represents a shift toward equity. By connecting young people — especially those from racialized or low-income backgrounds — with employers and mentors who actively sponsor them, Toronto is trying to level a playing field that has tilted against them. The pathway from application to opportunity may finally become clearer.