Over the past three decades in Canada, youth unemployment and crime have not been carefully examined either as a research agenda or as a public policy concern. For a number of reasons, criminologists in Canada have spent most of their energy on the politics of the Young Offenders Act or on specific issues related to youth crime, such as alcoholism and drug abuse. Yet the evidence from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia all points to a link between youth unemployment and property crime. There is evidence that for juveniles seasonal employment prospects that do not interfere with school can go far to meet the needs and consumer expectations of teenagers. Canadian sociological criminologists should shift their focus and align their research priorities more closely with those of their progressive colleagues in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. They can begin, for example, by requesting from the police the employment status of offenders, establishing longitudinal cohort studies of youth, and initiating a number of "from the street" case studies. Possible policy options to be publicly debated include the reinstituting of family allowances or a guaranteed annual income, 1 year more of compulsory school attendance, and regulation of the amount of part-time employment reserved for high school students. 7 notes, 60 references, 6 tables, and 2 figures