OTTAWA — The high-school dropout rate has fallen dramatically in the past 20 years, from 16.6 per cent to 8.5 per cent, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

A report by the agency found that 191,000 young people aged 20 to 24 had not completed a high-school education and were not attending school in 2009-2010. That's a big drop from the 1990-91 figure of nearly 340,000.

While the numbers paint an encouraging picture, there are pockets of concern. The dropout rate for First Nations people living off reserve is 25.8 per cent, and the unemployment situation has become increasingly grim for all high-school dropouts in the past few years.

Paul Cappon, president and CEO of the Learning Council of Canada, says Canada has a long way to go to compete with some other countries, such as Norway, where the dropout rate is much lower.

"The dropout rate from high school in Canada is still no better than the average of other OECD countries -- the rate has been going down in all countries," he said from Berlin.

"I think we should be happy to the extent that progress is being made and some kudos, some congratulations, I think, are in order for some of the ministers of education, particularly in the Atlantic region, where rates traditionally in the '70s and '80s were among the highest in the country, and now they're among the lowest in the country."

A demographic shift also means that the school population has declined in Atlantic Canada, he said, and this could perhaps mean there are fewer students per class -- with teachers able to give more time to the students they do have.

Statistics Canada senior analyst Jason Gilmore said British Columbia had the lowest dropout rate at 6.2 per cent, but Newfoundland and Labrador wasn't far behind at 7.4 per cent.

"What's interesting about Newfoundland and Labrador is 20 years ago, they had the highest dropout rate in the country among all the provinces, and now it's among the lowest," Gilmore said from Ottawa.

Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta were the provinces with the highest dropout rates, in the range of 10 and 11 per cent.

"I think the problem in Quebec is particularly acute, especially in the rural regions, and I think what they don't have is the possibility, perhaps, of doing the kinds of work in high school that are attractive to male students," Cappon observed.

Students in Europe often have the opportunity to do an apprenticeship while in high school, he said, and this is important for males because they want to see the relevance of education for real working life.

"Most of the students who do drop out of high school don't drop out because they're failing -- they drop out because of lack of engagement."

The dropout rate in the Yukon averaged 15.5 per cent in the three-year period from 2007 to 2010, while it was 30.1 per cent in the Northwest Territories and 50 per cent in Nunavut.

Cappon said efforts are underway in some provinces to improve education for aboriginals, although they aren't reflected in these numbers yet.

"When aboriginals do graduate from high school and do go on to community college, they tend to do just as well and graduate in just the same proportions as non-aboriginal students," he said. "If we give them the chance, I think they can succeed."

The report indicated that newcomers to Canada are frequently successful in attaining a high-school diploma. Dropout rates were lower for young immigrant adults, at 6.2 per cent, than for Canadian-born young people, at 9.1 per cent.

"That's an extraordinary comment on the egalitarian nature of Canadian public education," Cappon noted. "Canadian systems go out of their way to accommodate people from everywhere."

Dropout rates were lower for young women, at 6.6 per cent last year, than for young men, at 10.3 per cent.

"There's still a lot of traction to be made, particularly among people in rural areas and among males," Cappon said. "We have a gender issue in education in Canada, and this report points that out yet again."

The jobless rate for high-school dropouts has risen from 18 per cent before the economic downturn to 23.2 per cent in 2009-10, a period coinciding with the early recovery.

The unemployment rate was 11.9 per cent in 2009-10 for young people aged 20 to 24 who have completed high school.

"We're seeing waiting lists at the moment," said Sinead McCarthy, vice-president of Youth Employment Services, which assists Toronto residents looking for work.

"The youth unemployment rate is so high, the demand is unprecedented in the past few years. We're calling it a crisis in youth unemployment."

Highly educated youth with post-secondary education are finding it just as hard to find a job these days as youth with no high-school diploma and other barriers, she said.

The number of clients using the service has doubled to 10,000 in the past year, she said.

Young people are still eager to work but there's increased competition for jobs, which are more often temporary or minimum-wage positions.

Youth are arriving with "more issues," McCarthy said. They might be homeless or couch surfing, and need to use a meal program and clothing bank for job interview outfits.

"Because they're coming from a shelter, dropped out of school, really don't have a telephone, they don't have the transportation means to get to interviews," she added.