Almost 2,000 student employees cut from federal government in the last fiscal year

The number of students working for the federal government fell almost 20 per cent between 2024 and 2025.

Data provided by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat shows 9,120 students were employed in the federal public service at the end of March 2024. A year later, in March 2025, that number had fallen to 7,370.

Employees on leave without pay, ministers’ exempt staff, employees locally engaged outside of Canada, some RCMP and Canadian Forces members and some agencies were excluded from the data.

The biggest cut in student employment was at Canada Revenue Agency, which saw its student workforce drop from 1,356 in March 2024 to 268 in March 2025.

Etienne Biram, a spokesperson for the CRA, said in a recent email to The Canadian Press that the decrease can be attributed to the CRA adapting to "financial realities."

The student population in the public service in March 2025 was at its lowest level since 2017, when there were 6,281 students employed by the Government of Canada.

Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said the reduction in student jobs and cuts to casual and term employees that have been underway for years are all part of the "quiet cuts" being made to the public service.

Prier said the cuts are "driven by ideological austerity that blames public servants for a deficit they didn’t cause."

"Students are often incredibly motivated and innovative team members eager for a career in public service," he said. "This DOGE-lite approach is decimating the current workforce and jeopardizing the future of the public service by turning away the best and brightest young workers."

The youth unemployment rate reached 14.6 per cent in July, its highest rate since September 2010, excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, Statistics Canada says.

Earlier this month, Finance Minister François Philippe Champagne said "adjustments" are coming to the public service as Ottawa looks to trim its operational spending in the fall budget.

Champagne said he has received responses from his cabinet colleagues to his request earlier this summer for spending cuts of 15 per cent over the next three years.