The federal Minister of Employment says it is much more difficult for a young person to find a job today in southeastern Manitoba than it was when she was a youth.

Winnipeg Member of Parliament MaryAnn Mihychuk says forty per cent of young people are under employed, which means they might be trained as a carpenter or biologist, but they can not find

(MaryAnn Mihychuk highlighting Youth Employment Strategy)work in that field.

"Because if you go on to the job bank, which is Canada's job centre, many of the jobs available want several years of experience," explains Mihychuk. "And young people coming out of college or out of high school or university, don't have the experience, and so they don't qualify."

She says as a result you might have a trained biologist working at Starbucks or Walmart. Mihychuk says there is educational diploma scarring, which means if you can not get employment in your field of training, your educational certificate will begin to lose value. In fact she says if you're not engaged after three years, it is really a wasted investment.

Mihychuk says Steinbach might be a bustling industrial centre with a lot of opportunities. But, having grown up in the southeast, she says job opportunities for youth are much more scarce today than when she was younger.

"Back when I graduated from high school, I had five jobs waiting for me, now, you have five people going after one job," she says. "Things are much, much harder for youth today than they were back in the 70's when I graduated."

Mihychuk says rural Manitoba has a much more acute job shortage than urban centres and in the north it's even worse.

"Northern Manitoba has the highest unemployment rate in the country," she says. "It's just dire up there."

Mihychuk made a stop in Manitoba to highlight the Government of Canada's investment of more than $165 million through the Youth Employment Strategy. The new investment will help create thousands of new green jobs, more summer employment, participation in the Skills Link program and employment in the heritage sector.

"We're working hard to make a difference for young people and we want these creative minds to be in our economy," says Mihychuk.