Social media users have been posting pictures and videos like this of people seen waiting in long lines for work in Kitchener. (u/Anarcho-Warlord on Reddit)
Skuterud said there has actually been a dramatic decline in job vacancies.
“Imagine you’re running a business and you’re selling a good in a market, a product market, whatever it is that good sells for a price,” he said.
“If you’re running a business and you notice suddenly that the price you can charge for the good is increasing really quickly relative to the wage, then you are potentially making more money … If you were using machines and technology to produce with, now you want to rely more on labour [because] it’s cheap relative to everything else.”
He said that’s quickly turning around as the cost of labour catches up with the inflated price of goods and services.
‘Everything in the resumé is a lie’
Vanessa Gale and Manu Bahl are co-owners of New World Momentum, an employment agency in Kitchener.
They said more than 2,500 of the applications they received this year were from international students, making up about 90 per cent of all the applications they’re processing.
“There’s so many people saying they’re going months and months, like some people up to six months, without a job,” Gale said.
“Every day we are getting 10 to 15 refugees or work permit holders along with 10 to 15 students. Ever since the rule changed for the [international] students, they are eligible to work full time … and the number of applicants has gone crazy,” Bahl added.
Bahl and Gale said they’ve also noticed a sharp increase in the number of applicants applying for jobs for which they’re not qualified.
“People will show up with their beautiful resumés saying all good things. That makes us happy for a second, and when you start talking to them, you will get that everything in the resumé is a lie,” Bahl said.
Bahl cited the example of a man who said he had four years of welding experience, then later confessed he had lied during his job interview.
“What we’re hearing from people is they feel they have to have that kind of experience on their resumés,” Gale added. “When we ask people why they do this … they’re saying they just feel like they have to be more competitive because the job market is so tough.”
‘Don’t waste your time’
Ashish Bhatia came to Waterloo as an international student. Today, his Instagram page has more than 27,000 followers asking him for advice on immigrating to Canada.