Theresa Tedesco

Unemployment in today’s Canada. My experience. It’s a big read but please read it through. For three years, I helped care for my father while continuing to work full-time. I even moved next door to him so I could better support him as his health declined. I cared for him until he died. Later, while still employed, I went through six months of breast cancer treatment myself. Pretending those experiences didn’t affect my career would be dishonest. What nobody tells you about employment instability is how cumulative it becomes. Caregiving impacts careers even when you stay employed. Illness impacts careers even when you keep showing up. You can still be working while slowly losing professional momentum underneath you. During unemployment, I applied for 65 jobs. Government. Communications. Non-profit. Administrative. Retail. Hospitality. Not one offer. At one point, after years in senior advisory and executive communications roles, I applied at Starbucks. I didn’t get the job. That experience stayed with me. Not because service work is beneath me — some of the hardest jobs I ever had were in restaurants and hospitality when I was younger. But because the economy had somehow decided I was simultaneously overqualified and unemployable. At 44 years old, after years spent working in government and public affairs, there were moments I genuinely started wondering whether I had anything left to contribute professionally. That’s what prolonged unemployment does to people psychologically. The hardest part of unemployment wasn’t only financial. It was psychological. Watching previous accomplishments stop mattering. Trying to explain résumé gaps without sounding damaged. Feeling your professional identity slowly erode in real time. In April 2026, Canada’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.9%. Behind those numbers are people whose lives became complicated. Caregivers. People managing chronic illness. Cancer survivors. People navigating grief, burnout, disability, aging parents, or health crises while trying to maintain careers at the same time. Governments still talk about unemployment mostly through statistics. But people experience the economy emotionally. Through rejection emails. Through grocery bills. Through rent increases. Through the quiet panic of realizing there’s very little room left in modern life for interruption. The labour market increasingly rewards uninterrupted stability. Perfect timelines. Continuous productivity. No visible complications. But real life does not work that way anymore. Parents age. People get sick. Caregiving responsibilities consume years . Disabilities emerge. Mental health deteriorates. And increasingly Canadians are expected to absorb those pressures privately while continuing to perform professionally as though nothing has changed. There’s a growing class of Canadians who did everything they were told to do. I certainly did. Built careers Paid taxes. Earned degrees. Contributed to institutions. Then life interrupted the plan. And the system suddenly became much less patient with them. This is why affordability and unemployment cannot be separated politically. When the cost of living keeps climbing, employment instability becomes terrifying. One interruption can destabilize everything. I have a job again now and I am grateful for that. But the experience changed how I see work, government, and the economy. A lot more Canadians are hanging on by a thread than our politics currently acknowledges.