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Economic and Social Reports, June 2024

Released: 2024-06-26

There are six new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Working-age immigrants in same-sex couples have increased from 2000 to 2020

The number of working-age immigrants in a same-sex couple increased from 900 in 2000 to 20,470 by 2020, representing 0.61% of all immigrant couples for females and 0.73% of all immigrant couples for males. In addition, the share living in areas outside of Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal increased during this period. The study "Socioeconomic profile of working-age immigrants in same-sex couples in Canada from 2000 to 2020" offers new insights on the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of immigrants in same-sex couples aged 25 to 64 who landed during the period from 1980 to 2020.

Male and female immigrants in same-sex couples were generally more likely to be employed than immigrants in opposite-sex couples. This difference was larger for females than males (a gap of 17 percentage points for females versus 7 percentage points for males in 2020). From 2000 to 2020, female working-age immigrants in same-sex couples also earned more than their counterparts in opposite-sex couples. While a similar pattern was observed for males after 2011, once controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, male immigrants in same-sex couples earned less than their counterparts in opposite-sex couples. This study highlights the importance of considering sociodemographic characteristics to better understand the economic profiles of immigrants in same-sex couples.

When measuring Canadians' satisfaction with their homes, location may be more important than ownership

Overall, individuals who own their primary residence are more satisfied with their dwelling, neighbourhood and life than those who rent. However, the study "Homeowner-renter dwelling, neighbourhood and life satisfaction gaps" found that this higher satisfaction is largely because of the differences in living situations and circumstances between owners and renters as opposed to ownership.

Renters typically live in dwellings with fewer bedrooms than owners and are around twice as likely to encounter issues such as mould, mildew or pests, three times as likely to report poor indoor air quality, and less likely to be satisfied with their soundproofing, temperature control, and safety and security. Compared to those individuals who own their primary residence, renters are also more likely to report neighbourhood issues like vandalism, graffiti or other damage, drug use or dealing, and attacks motivated by race, ethnicity or religion, and are more likely to be in the bottom 20% of the family income distribution.

When comparing owners and renters who live in similar neighbourhoods or types of housing or have similar household characteristics (e.g., their income), differences in satisfaction narrow or disappear. This does not rule out the possibility that homeownership provides other social or economic benefits but highlights the importance of considering housing and neighbourhood characteristics as possible reasons for differing satisfaction rates.

New businesses since the COVID-19 pandemic are more successful than pre-pandemic new businesses

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, new businesses that opened in 2020 were smaller and fewer in number compared with previous years. The article "New businesses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic" examines how new businesses that entered after the beginning of the pandemic, and could not qualify for COVID-19 support programs, fared compared with previous entry cohorts. The findings show that these businesses carried less debt, had more liquidity, were more profitable and were more productive in their year of entry compared with businesses that opened before the pandemic. These characteristics allowed them to survive at a higher rate in their first years and catch up in employment size to previous cohorts.

For example, the rate of business entry was 13.3% in 2020, compared with an average of 16.0% during the period from 2015 to 2019. But the entry rate recovered to 15.1% in 2021 and 15.0% in 2022. In 2020, the average employment size of entrants dipped to 1.8 employees, from 2.1 before the pandemic. However, this average employment size rebounded to 2.1 in 2021 and 2022.

More temporary foreign workers are transitioning to permanent residency compared with earlier cohorts

Five years after getting their first work permit, 34% of temporary foreign workers who arrived during the period from 2011 to 2015 transitioned into permanent residency. This is an increase from 27% of temporary foreign workers in the 2006-to-2010 cohort transitioning to permanent residency. The article "Foreign workers in Canada: Differences in the transition to permanent residency across work permit programs" examines the recent changes in the transition to permanent residency across work permit programs and immigration pathways for individuals who have made the transition.

Transition rates have increased or remained high for most work permit programs, but they have stayed low or decreased among certain others. For example, the five-year transition rates to permanent residency increased from 69% in the 2006-to-2010 cohort to 73% in the 2011-to-2015 cohort for the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program, but stayed around 10% for agriculture programs. Permanent residency was achieved mostly due to pathways such as the Provincial Nominee Program and the Canadian Economic Class. Insights into transition patterns can inform policy considerations regarding the inflows of temporary foreign workers and their long-term role in addressing labour shortages across industries and skill levels.

This article is the fifth in a series that presents statistics and insights on temporary foreign workers in Canada. For the other articles in the series, see "Foreign workers in Canada: Labour force attachment among temporary residents with paid employment in 2019," "Foreign workers in Canada: Distribution of paid employment by industry," "Foreign workers in Canada: Work permit holders versus employment income records, 2010 to 2022," and "Foreign workers in Canada: Changing composition and employment incidences of work permit holders."

Retaining and recruiting young skilled minority official language speakers in Canadian provinces

Retaining and recruiting minority official language speakers in communities can help strengthen cultural identity and economic vitality. The study "Retention and recruitment of young skilled minority official language speakers in Canadian provinces" looks at the number of young postsecondary graduates who either moved away from (skill loss) or moved into (skill gain) a province as a share of all young postsecondary graduates who grew up in that province. The differences in these two shares are termed "net skill losses" or "net skill gains."

New Brunswick had a net skill loss of 1 in 5 (or -19% of) young French speakers who grew up in the province, obtained postsecondary education from 2010 to 2017 (either in New Brunswick or elsewhere), and were followed two years after graduation. Only two other provinces reported net skill losses with regards to their minority official language speaking youth population: Quebec (-9% of its initial skilled English-speaking youth population) and Manitoba (-6% of its initial skilled French-speaking youth population). Alberta was the largest net gainer of young skilled minority official language speakers (70%).

The proportion of children likely to have a disability has increased from 2016 to 2021

The 2021 Census of Population included questions on difficulties with activities of daily living to identify Canadians likely to have a disability. Little is known about the suitability of these questions for children. The article "An update on the profile of children with affirmative responses to the 2021 Census questions on difficulties with activities of daily living" found that the proportion of children aged 0 to 14 likely to have a disability was 16.3% in 2021, an increase of almost 3 percentage points from 2016 (13.5%). This increase was largely due to increases in difficulties learning, remembering, or concentrating as well as emotional, psychological or mental health conditions. Future research is required to compare the activities of daily living questions with other instruments to determine their usefulness to identify children likely to have disabilities.

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The June 2024 issue of Economic and Social Reports, Vol. 4, no. 06 (36280001), is now available. This issue contains the articles "Foreign workers in Canada: Differences in the transition to permanent residency across work permit programs," "Retention and recruitment of young skilled minority official language speakers in Canadian provinces," "New businesses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic," "Homeowner-renter dwelling, neighbourhood and life satisfaction gaps," "Socioeconomic profile of working-age immigrants in same-sex couples in Canada from 2000 to 2020" and "An update on the profile of children with affirmative responses to the 2021 Census questions on difficulties with activities of daily living."

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).

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