December 2023
Spotlight on data and research
Foreign workers in Canada: Distribution of paid employment by industry
Temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada are increasingly working in low paying jobs. In 2019, 45% of TFWs worked in accommodation and food services; retail trade; and administrative and support, waste management, and remediation services, a significant rise from 33% in 2010. This study found that this increase can be attributed to the large expansion of individuals holding International Mobility Program (IMP) work permits and study permits and the growing trend of international students seeking employment in these sectors.
Overall, TFWs accounted for 4.3% of all T4 earners in the country in 2019, up from 2.2% in 2010. Certain sectors of Canadian industries rely heavily on TFWs. In 2019, they made up 18% of the workforce in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector; 11% in accommodation and food services; and 10% in administrative and support, waste management and remediation services.
The post-2001 productivity growth divergence between Canada and the United States: The role of the information and cultural services industries
Both Canada and the United States had similar growth rates up until 2001, but a large gap emerged after, with the United States growth moderating slightly and Canada's growth falling more sharply. This study attributes the divergence to weak innovation and investment in information technologies associated with the industries’ growing market power.
The study focused on labour productivity growth between Canada and the United States since 2001, paying close attention to the information and cultural industries due to their role in Canada's slower labour productivity growth between 2001 and 2019. Firms in Canada’s information and cultural industries, facing less competition, could set higher prices, negatively affecting labour productivity growth.
Intergenerational income mobility in Canada: Research highlights from two recent studies
The Intergenerational Income Database (IID), maintained by Statistics Canada for the past 25 years, has been the main source of data on intergenerational income mobility. This article summarizes two studies that use the IID to compare intergenerational income mobility across several countries and, when paired with census data, examine the effect of parent’s education on the incomes of their children.
The estimated rate of intergenerational family income mobility for Canadians born in 1985 was higher than in the United States, lower than in Norway or the United Kingdom, and about the same as in Finland. Graduating from high school may ease the decline in intergenerational income mobility observed in several recent Canadian studies.
Insights
Most prevalent jobs of young bachelor’s degree graduates by detailed fields of study
This study found that although a small number of bachelor’s degree programs were strongly associated with one specific job, such as nursing, pharmacy, and teacher training programs, most programs were linked to a large variety of jobs.
For instance, female design and applied arts graduates were not highly concentrated in their field of study (28.6% worked as Graphic designers and illustrators), but many landed jobs that are related to the arts—Interior designers and interior decorators (16.0%), Industrial designers (4.3%), Theatre, fashion, exhibit and other creative designers (3.9%).
Research articles
Provincial Nominee Program: Recent trends and provincial differences in earnings outcomes
The Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) has become the largest economic immigration program in Canada and the earnings of provincial nominees are important indicators of the ability of the PNP in addressing provincial labour market needs. This study is the first to compare average earnings of PNP immigrants across provinces.
Provincial nominees had much higher earnings in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia than in Atlantic provinces, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, both in the initial two years and five to six years after landing. After adjusting for immigrants’ sociodemographic characteristics and provincial economic conditions, earnings gaps persisted between provinces, ranging from $5,200 to $16,500 in the first two years after immigration. The provincial differences in PNP earnings were much larger than provincial differences in earnings of all Canadian workers and were also different from provincial differences among federal skilled workers.
The housing trajectories of Canadian-born racialized population groups
Homeownership rates vary across racialized groups, with the greatest differences occurring among young adults. This article examines trends in homeownership and co-residence with parents among Canadian-born racialized groups by birth cohort from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, based on analyses of data from the 1996, 2001, 2006, 2016 Census of Population and the 2011 National Household Survey.
Depending on the birth cohort and age group, the rate of living in an owned home was higher for South Asians and Chinese (5 to 24 percentage points) and lower for Blacks and Latin Americans (3 to 19 percentage points) when compared with White Canadians. At younger ages, these disparities were primarily due to differences in co-residence with parents and parents’ homeownership. Across racialized groups in their 20s, the highest rates of co-residence with parents were observed among South Asians (86% to 91%), Chinese (79% to 84%), and Filipinos (82% to 85%). Black and Latin American youth were more likely to leave their parental home earlier and were least likely to own their own homes when starting their households. These findings suggest that housing advantages and disadvantages among parents often pass on to the next generation.
Related publications
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series
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