Employment rates, by educational attainment and immigrant status

Recent immigrants are more highly educated

• The education level of Canadians generally has been rising over the past several decades. The immigration policy of the 1990s, which placed greater emphasis on education, partially explains the even more marked increase in the educational attainment observed among recent arrivals. In 2001, 46% of immigrants aged 25 to 54 who arrived from 1996 to 2000 held at least a bachelor's degree, compared with only 24% of those who arrived from 1986 to 1990.
• The employment rate within a group generally rises with education level. This trend is also evident among recent immigrants aged 25 to 54 years. In 2001, the employment rate was 54.6% among recent immigrants reporting less than a high school diploma, compared with 69.4% for those with a university degree. However, whatever the education level, the employment rate gap between recent immigrants and native-born Canadians remained sizable (ranging from 12 percentage points for those with some high school or less, to 22 points among those with a high school diploma but no postsecondary).
• A major influx of skilled immigrants in recent years has resulted in a larger proportion of newcomers being employed in ‘professional' jobs. In 2001, nearly 1 recent immigrant in 5 held such a job, compared with just over 1 in 10 in 1991. Of the five largest CMAs, it was in Ottawa–Gatineau that recent immigrants were the most likely to obtain a professional job, in both 1991 and 2001. A high proportion of this CMA's work force is employed in professional occupations, reflecting the preponderance of government and high-tech jobs, as well as other jobs requiring postsecondary education.

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