Unemployment among Canadian immigrants is at its lowest

According to the latest Labour Force Survey, unemployment among very recent immigrants is at an all-time low, and employment is expanding faster than the population of Canada.

According to Statistics Canada’s March Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate among immigrants who arrived in Canada during the last five years was at an all-time low.

The latest report shows Canada’s labour market conditions in the middle of March 2022. During this time, provinces were easing public health restrictions. All capacity limits and proof-of-vaccination requirements were finally lifted in Ontario, Alberta,  and Quebec.

Overall, unemployment in Canada declined 0.2 percentage points to 5.3 percent, the lowest level since comparable records began in 1976. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed people by the total labour force.

The  latest unemployment rate—which includes people who needed a job, but did not look for one, was below the pre-pandemic period for the first time at 7.2%.

Canada’s total employment improved by 73,000 in March 2022. Immigration is mainly responsible for Canada’s population growth. Statistics Canada’s 2021  recently announced that Canada had the fastest growing population in the G7 because to immigration.

During the past two week, Canada came up with new measures to support temporary foreign workers in an effort to manage labour shortages. Some of these measures have already came into effect, such as the two-fold increase in Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) validity period. LMIAs effectively show that a foreign worker will not be taking a Canadian citizen or PR’s job, and they must be issued some work permits. Also, the maximum duration of employment for some streams has been extended from two years to three. In addition, the number of low wage positions for seasonal jobs are unlimited.

For permanent migration, Canada is planning on admitting a new record number of newcomers this year. According to the 2022-2024 Immigration Levels Plan, Canada will admit 431,645 newcomers in 2022.