Student unemployment in Canada hit its highest level in more than a decade this summer.

Statistics Canada says students returning to school in the fall faced an average unemployment rate of 16.7 per cent between May and August, the highest since 2012, excluding 2020.

The agency reports those results impacted Canada’s overall unemployment rate, which rose to 6.6 per cent in August from 6.4 per cent in July.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, the jobless rate jumped to 10.4 per cent in August, up almost a full percentage point from the month before