The spring 2025 co-op recruitment term has seen significantly lower employment numbers compared to previous years, with almost a 22 per cent decrease from last spring’s 93 per cent.

On May 14, the Co-op Employment Summary Statistics reported a 75 per cent employment rate. It gradually increases into the term as the employment rate reaches 77 per cent as of May 19 and 77.3 per cent on May 21, with 2,149 students still seeking employment. However, as the work term has already started on May 5, and companies are done recruiting for the summer, it’s unlikely the number will go up as much beyond this point. 

For context, the spring term during COVID-19 (2020 spring) had an employment rate of 86.5 per cent, the lowest rate prior to this spring 2025 term. All other recruitment terms have reported mostly 90+ per cent employment rates. The engineering faculty currently has the highest rate for the term at 78.8 per cent and the health faculty with the lowest at 71 per cent. 

The co-operative education program at UW is a driving force for many students to accept offers to the university. According to Co-operative Education & Career Action in 2017, it is the reason 70 per cent of incoming undergraduate students choose Waterloo.

Being able to build up a resume with work experience is desirable to help employment post-grad. The opening of the university in 1957 came with an innovative co-operative program which ended up being a spearheading contributor to UW’s initial success. 

Inevitably, there can be frustration among students who pay a $817 co-op fee (ranging from five to eight times depending on program) and are unable to find a job. Of course, the unemployment rate also does not account for positions that are less than satisfactory for employed students. For undergraduate public health student, Cindy Oh, who is in her third work term and participated in the spring 2025 search, it was a difficult process. “I found that there were a lot less jobs related to my program… There were only a few jobs that were actually relevant to my program in comparison to other terms,” she said. 

However, the numbers coming from this previous co-op term might be a reflection of the economy of the current job market as opposed to a downturn in the co-operative program at Waterloo. According to Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey, “The unemployment rate increased among young men aged 15 to 24 (+1.1 percentage points to 15.4 per cent) in April. Although employment held steady, more young men searched for work in the month, which drove the unemployment rate up for this group.” 

Although UW’s co-operative program is far from perfect and can be highly competitive and anxiety-inducing for students, the WaterlooWorks job portal is still better established and fulsome than other Canadian universities. ‘Course Compare’ has still ranked Waterloo’s co-op program the best in Canada as of 2025.