Backgrounder: Canada Summer Jobs 2024

Program overview
Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) is part of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, a horizontal federal initiative that supports youth aged 15 to 30—particularly those facing barriers to employment— to gain work experience and develop the skills they need to successfully transition into the labour market.

CSJ is delivered by Employment and Social Development Canada. The program supports employers to create summer jobs for youth in the not-for-profit, public, and private sectors. It includes a focus on small businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees. CSJ provides youth with opportunities to develop and improve their skills. For some, it will be their first job experience, and it will inform their future education, training and career choices.  The program is responsive to national and local priorities as well as labour market needs.

CSJ 2024 youth hiring period
The hiring period for CSJ 2024 is underway and will run until July 22, 2024. More than 70,000 jobs that matter to young people and to our communities will be posted on the Job Bank website and mobile app, and will be updated on a regular basis. Young people are encouraged to keep checking for updates on placements available in their communities.

Eligibility criteria

Youth participants:  
Eligible participants must be:

• between 15 and 30 years of age (inclusive) at the start of employment;
• Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or persons on whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act; and
• legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial or territorial legislation and regulations.

International students are not eligible. Recent immigrants are eligible if they are Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Employers:
Eligible Canadian employers can be from the not-for-profit, public and private sectors. Private sector employers must have 50 or fewer full-time employees across Canada to be eligible (full-time employees are those working 30 hours or more per week).

The employer application period is now closed for CSJ 2024. Employers interested in applying for CSJ funding next year are encouraged to open an account on the secure Grants and Contributions Online Services portal.

Ineligible projects and job activities

Ineligible Canadian employers include members of the House of Commons and the Senate, federal government departments and agencies, and provincial departments and agencies.

Projects and job activities are ineligible if they:

• have activities that take place outside of Canada;
• include activities that contribute to the provision of a personal service to the employer;
• involve partisan political activities;
• involve fundraising activities to cover salary costs for the youth participant;
• restrict access to programs, services or employment, or otherwise discriminate, contrary to applicable laws, on the basis of prohibited grounds, including sex, genetic characteristics, religion, race, national or ethnic origin, colour, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression;
• advocate intolerance, discrimination or prejudice; or
• actively work to undermine or restrict a woman’s access to sexual and reproductive health services.