October 2023
Spotlight on data and research
Foreign workers in Canada: Changing composition and employment incidences of work permits
Canada recruits foreign nationals to address temporary labour shortages by providing work permits to them. This study looks at the two main work permit programs: the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP), to help improve the understanding of the evolving work permit programs.
The study found that, the growth in the number of work permit holders was primarily driven by the IMP for work and study purposes. From 2010 to 2021, the share of IMP work permit holders for work purposes increased from 42% to 55% in 2021, and the share of IMP permit holders for study purposes more than doubled from 8% to 17%. In addition, from 2010 to 2020, the proportion of work permit holders reporting annual earnings in Canada rose from 60% to 71%, and this proportion varied considerably by permit program.
Insights
Foreign workers in Canada: Work permit holders versus employment income records, 2010 to 2022
As temporary foreign workers are an increasingly important source of labour supply in Canada, accurately measuring their presence in the labor force is crucial for informing policy decisions. This study assesses the advantages and limitations of the two most used data sources. The statistics on work permit holders provided by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, offer up-to-date information on the influx and total number of foreign nationals arriving in Canada for work purposes. However, as some work permit holders may not have worked in Canada during the year, and many eligible temporary residents are not required to have a work permit to work, the number of employed temporary residents derived from tax records presents another important measure of the role played by temporary foreign workers in the labor market.
From 2010 to 2020, the number of temporary residents reporting employment income increased 149%, while a smaller increase (108%) was observed in the number of valid work permit holders for work purposes on December 31 of each year. This difference in growth rates result from increased labour force participation of work permit and non-work permit holders.
Employee paid sick leave coverage in Canada, 1995 to 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of paid sick leaves (PSL) for Canadian employees. This study shows that self-reported paid sick leave coverage has increased moderately in Canada from 1995 to 2022. In many cases, coverage appears to have risen faster in jobs that exhibit relatively low coverage than in other jobs. For example, coverage increased by about 13 percentage points in non-unionized jobs from 1995 to 2022 while it rose by at most 6 points in unionized jobs during that period. Nevertheless, large differences in self-reported coverage remain in 2022 across several dimensions such as education, industry, firm size, and deciles of the wage distribution.
Recent developments in the Canadian economy: Fall 2023
This article provides an integrated summary of recent changes in output, consumer prices, employment and household finances. It highlights changes in the economic data during the first half of 2023 and into the summer months. The article also examines how economic conditions have changed as borrowing costs have risen.
Research articles
A profile of corporate exits and insolvencies
Small firms are more likely than larger firms to close permanently – often referred to as “exits”. However, smaller firms have lower rates of bankruptcy than large firms. This study fills a knowledge gap by presenting trends in exits, insolvency proposals and bankruptcies across business and financial characteristics among corporations from 2004 to 2020.
Businesses in manufacturing have some of the lowest exit rates but relatively high bankruptcy rates. Bankrupt businesses have low levels of labour productivity, profitability and liquidity, and high levels of leverage.
The trends are similar but less pronounced for businesses that exit, likely indicating exits happen for reasons other than business failure or financial distress. The results suggest that bankrupt businesses became more vulnerable over time in terms of their financial performance the year before bankruptcy.
Use of government business liquidity support by child care businesses in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic
Child care businesses play an important role in the labour force participation of parents. This study finds that child care businesses on average received more money from government financial supports programs during the COVID-19 pandemic than other businesses in the economy. This study aims to examine the use of four major emergency government support programs by the child care businesses, including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA), the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) and the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). Child care businesses were more likely to receive CEBA, CECRA or CERS and less likely to receive CEWS.
Among child care businesses with active business numbers, non-profit child care businesses were less likely to receive supports but received higher value of supports than for-profit ones. Child care businesses in Ontario and Alberta were most likely to receive supports and also received the highest values of supports, compared with child care businesses in other provinces and territories.
Related publications
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series
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