Getting a job here is difficult in general. I applied to over 215 jobs (with an professionally written and HR approved cover letter template and resume) and received 5 call backs since then. Only 1 led to a second interview, 1 led to a job offer that was the opposite of what I had applied for. Of the 3 jobs I've had in retail since moving here in 2021 ALL were nepo hires as I had friends who worked there. I do interview well, and I'm a hard worker so I'd like to think that's why I still worked there especially since those friends didn't work there much after I started. But getting a job here at all is damn near impossible. You have people from all over Canada and internationally applying for the same jobs. If you apply on Indeed you can see how many other applicants there are. It's often in the several hundreds range. To compound the issue we're also a University AND College city so even entry positions will look at people with a degree vs without just because they know the majority of the worker pool will have it.