The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that as the Canadian labour market softens, young people appear to be bearing the brunt of the slowdown. The Globe's Matt Lundy writes that the labour participation rate for those aged 15 to 24 fell to 62.7 per cent in January, down a full three percentage points from last April, according to Statistics Canada. People are considered labour participants when they are employed, or when they are out of work, available and actively searching for a job. The plunge has been especially large for young women: Their labour participation rate has ebbed to 62.5 per cent from roughly 67 per cent in early 2022. The youth unemployment rate stands at 10.8 per cent -- still low by historical standards, but up from 9.3 per cent in summer 2022. In a report, Royal Bank of Canada economists said that students and recent graduates account for a large portion of the increase to the overall unemployment rate. "The share of younger Canadians with postsecondary education has continued to rise, and hiring demand has softened sharply in industries like professional services and finance jobs where there's a higher number of recent postsecondary graduates struggling to find a job," they wrote.