Immigrants

In the 20th century, it was our immigrant population that quenched Canada's seemingly insatiable appetite for labour, fuelling and building our nascent economy. In fact, during the first decade of the century, immigrants made up nearly two-thirds of all new entrants to the work force. A similar wave of newcomers in the 1950s helped meet Canada's post-war labour demands.

This same trend has appeared in more recent years. Census data show that immigrants who landed in Canada during the 1990s, and who were in the labour force in 2001, represented almost 70% of the total growth of the labour force over the decade.

However, the 2001 Census showed that a gap in labour market conditions persists between immigrants who landed between 1996 and 2000 and the Canadian-born population. In 2001, 66% of recent immigrants aged 25 to 44 were employed, compared with 82% of Canadian-born people in the same age group. The unemployment rate of the recent immigrants aged 25 to 44 (12.1%) was still nearly twice that of the Canadian-born population (6.4%).

The share of recent immigrants in highly skilled occupations has increased over time. Specifically, recent immigrants made large gains in information technology occupations and accounted for two-fifths of the labour force growth in this field. However, the majority are still employed in lower skilled occupations.