Unemployment rising in Canada as new immigrants worse-off in finding jobs

Toronto: New immigrants, those who have become permanent residents within the past five years, have an unemployment rate that is nearly double that for the country as a whole.

People celebrate Canada Day on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Ontario, on July 1. (REUTERS)

The outlet Globe and Mail cited information from Statistics Canada, the government’s data agency, to state that unemployment for recent immigrants was at 12.6%, an increase of 4% since last year. Overall unemployment is Canada is 6.4%.

For those born in Canada, that rate 5.5% in June. The outlet noted the gap in jobless rates between them and recent immigrants is the largest since August, 2014, nearly a decade.

Indians form the largest cohort of those who have become permanent residents (PRs) in Canada over the past five years. In 2023, out of the 471,810 new PRs, Indians comprised 139,785 or nearly 30%. Since 2019, according to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), of the new PRs 1,841,250, Indians numbered 514,435 or approximately 28%.

In a recent report on labour participation, StatCan stated, “There were 1.4 million unemployed people in June 2024, an increase of 42,000 (+3.1%) from the previous month.”

Other groups facing high levels of unemployment: Younger Canadians, those aged between 15 and 24, were facing a rate of 13.5% in June, while Black Canadians, aged between 24 and 54, were unemployed at a rate of 11.9% last month.

The outlet Better Dwelling commented, “Canada’s unemployment story is less about job losses and more about population growth. Immigration is rising much faster than the country’s economic capacity to create jobs, leading to much higher unemployment for new immigrants and young adults competing for similar roles.”

Economic pain continues to grow in Canada, with cost of living and housing affordability, along with healthcare, being the three most significant issues for them, as per a recent survey from Angus Reid Institute (ARI), a non-profit public polling agency.