Hamilton ranked sixth best city in Canada for youth to work

Hamilton is ranked the sixth best city in Canada for youth to work, according to a new index released this week.

The inaugural Urban Work Index — launched by YouthfulCities — ranked 21 Canadian cities based on 48 urban work indicators, including affordability, education, employment and entrepreneurship.

The index, which was funded by RBC Future Launch, found Edmonton to be the top-ranked city for youth aged 15 to 29 to work.

Hamilton, which received 655.40 points out of a possible 1,310, ranked third for most affordable rent and second when it comes to the best place for young women to work given its place on the gender parity scale.

According to the report, Hamilton does well across the majority of affordability attributes, which include utilities, transportation, housing, health, leisure, clothing and food, finishing fifth overall in the category.

But the city’s showing across the remaining themes is quite poor.

When looking at education — affordability, access and work-integrated learning like summer student employment and job fairs — Hamilton ranked 16 out of 21 cities.

Hamilton ranked second when looking at the cost of one combo meal in a fast food restaurant and a box of 32 tampons and third when considering the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment and the price of one litre of gasoline.

Along with six other cities, Hamilton ranked first when looking at the monthly cost of a cellphone plan containing 1G of data.

The city came in 14th place in the employment ranking, which is reflective of the programs available, the local economic profile as well as career and basic employment.

In the entrepreneurship ranking, Hamilton, which has a youth population of 19 per cent, came in 16th. This category was measured based on the availability and cost of co-working spaces, entrepreneurial conferences in the city and the cost of business licences.