In comparison to landed immigrants from other parts of the world, landed immigrants from Africa and Asia had the greatest employment rates on average, according to a recent Statistics Canada research.
Note: Statistics Canada uses the technical term “landed immigrants” (or just “immigrants”) to refer to a person who has permanently resided in Canada. Those having transitory status (such as foreign students or employees with work permits) and Canadian citizens by birth or naturalization do not fall under this group.
The study examined the employment rate among over-15-year-old immigrants to Canada from different parts of the world. In 2023, the employment rates of various immigrant categories were as follows overall:
- Africa: employment at 67.7%;
- Asia: employment at 66.3%;
- 66% of Latin America
- 56.6% in North America; and
- 56.6% in Europe.
It should be noted that the national average employment rate for this generation was 62.7%.
These findings also held true for both sexes, with data showing that only men saw the same order of areas as all immigrants over the age of fifteen. After adjusting for just females, Asia ranked third and Latin America came in second place in terms of employment rating; other from this, the remaining findings for females were similar to those of the previous two cohorts.
Core working-age population: This is not the case
But the study did not turn up just this information. The most intriguing finding may be that the outcomes were nearly completely reversed when the data were limited to core-aged immigrants, or those who are 25 to 54.
The employment rates for core-aged immigrants by nationality and area in 2023 are as follows:
- In Europe, employment is 88.3%;
- Employment in Latin America: 82.8%;
- 82.7% of North America;
- Asia: 81.7 percent; and
- Africa: 79.8%.
It should be noted that the national average employment rate for this group was 82.6%.
Results for this group likewise showed cross-sex consistency. The employment rates fell in the same order after restricting the sample to just females in the same group. If we limit our analysis to men alone, North America and Latin America trade places, coming in second and third, respectively.
What does this signify?
The apparent reversal in the employment rate among immigrants suggests that, compared to their counterparts from other regions of the world, landed immigrants from Africa and Asia are significantly more likely to be employed between the ages of 15 and 25 and/or above the age of 54. On the other hand, compared to immigrant cohorts from other parts of the world, immigrants from Europe, Latin America, and North America had greater rates of employment between the ages of 25 and 54, indicating that they are more suited to the labor market during this time.
The difference in employment rates between these two cohorts (evidenced by the stark difference in national averages between these groups), may be due to cultural differences during school years. The pronounced difference (62.7% Vs. 82.6% national employment) possibly suggests that immigrants from Europe, Latin America, and North America were more likely to focus on just schooling between the ages of 15-25, when compared to immigrants from Asia and Africa, who appeared more likely to find employment during their studies, per this new data—however more information is needed to verify this. This would explain why some regional cohorts had lower scores in the “15 and over” group, but drastically increased when limiting data to core-aged workers—though notably immigrants of all regions saw increases in employment rates in core-aged years.
More information is required.
Although this study is useful for analyzing the work habits of immigrants, its relevance and breadth may be restricted because it does not include international students and temporary foreign workers in its dataset.
The labour force of Canada is heavily dependent on foreign workers, who account for a substantial share of the country’s workforce. There were 797,225 people in the nation with valid work permits as of December 2022. As evidence of how important this segment of the population is to the Canadian labor force, Canada has experienced a 108% growth in temporary foreign workers over the past ten years.
Comparably, Canada has witnessed a sharp rise in the number of international students; by 2023, it is predicted that close to a million international students will call Canada home. Similar to foreign laborers, international students make significant contributions to the workforce; this is demonstrated by Canada’s intention to allow this group to work longer hours until 2024.
Including these two categories in a larger survey is essential to obtaining a more representative picture of the labor force in Canada.
