Immigrant labour market outcomes, Census Metropolitan Areas

View the most recent version.

The vast majority of immigrants settle in urban areas, particularly in Canada’s largest cities (Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal, also known as the “Big Three”). Since most of Canada’s population lives in urban areas, CMA labour market outcomes tend to have the same pattern as their respective provincial outcomes.

This section presents data on 11 selected CMAs; the “Big Three” as well as eight mid-sized cities across Canada.

Toronto immigrants had highest employment rates of “Big Three” CMA’s

Core working-age immigrants living in Toronto and Vancouver areas had slightly better labour market outcomes in 2006 than immigrants living in the Montréal area, with higher employment rates (Chart 4) and lower unemployment rates (Chart 5). However, the Canadian born living in Toronto and Vancouver also had higher employment rates and lower unemployment rates than did the Canadian born living in Montréal, suggesting a stronger job market in 2006 in Toronto and Vancouver.

Very recent immigrants living in Toronto were the most likely to be employed of the three large CMAs with an employment rate of 67.5%. In Vancouver, the employment rate was 63.6%, while Montréal’s rate was 59.1%. Very recent and recent immigrants in Toronto had the smallest gaps in the shares of their core working-age populations who were employed compared to the Canadian born in the city. In Vancouver, this gap was slightly larger than in Toronto, while it was even larger still in Montréal.

Core working-age immigrants living in Montréal had much higher unemployment rates than their Canadian-born counterparts in Montréal. While Canadian-born Montréalers had an unemployment rate of 5.9%, very recent immigrants had an unemployment rate more than three times as high at 18.1% (Chart 5). Similarly, very recent immigrants in Toronto and Vancouver also faced unemployment rates that were close to three times the rates experienced by the Canadian born in their cities. Again, these higher unemployment rates could be a reflection of the difficulties encountered by very recent immigrants in the initial phases of their settlement in Canada.

Chart 4  Employment rates, by immigrant type, population aged 25 to 54, Big Three CMAs, 2006

Chart 5  Unemployment rates by immigrant type, population aged 25 to 54, Big Three CMAs, 2006

Calgary’s employment rate for non-immigrants and immigrants comparable

(Note that for the following mid-sized CMAs, the sample size of the unemployed in most of these cities was too small, to be statistically reliable. As a result, we were unable to discuss these rates.)

Calgary’s hot labour market benefited immigrants and Canadian born alike in 2006. Canadian-born core working-age Calgarians had the highest employment rate (89.3%) of all the eight selected mid-sized CMAs (Chart 6). The strong demand for labour in 2006 was particularly visible among the city’s very recent immigrants, who demonstrated a large degree of success in finding employment. These immigrants, like Canadian-born Calgarians, had a very high employment rate (73.6%) compared with the seven other mid-sized CMAs.

Hamilton’s very recent immigrant employment rate lowest among eight mid-sized cities

Very recent immigrants who settled in Hamilton had the lowest employment rate (58.3%) among the group of eight mid-sized cities in 2006 (Chart 6). Even core working-age immigrants in Hamilton who landed 5 to 10 years before were not faring as well in the labour market as recent immigrants in some other mid-sized CMAs.

Chart 6  Employment rates, ages 25 to 54, selected Census Metropolitan Areas, 2006

Employment rates strong for Halifax, Winnipeg recent immigrants

Halifax is home to the lion’s share of Atlantic Canada’s immigrants. Core working-age recent immigrants (those who landed between 5 and 10 years prior to 2006) in the Halifax area fared very well in the labour market, with 88.9% of them employed, higher than that of Canadian-born Haligonians (84.7%). Their employment rate ranked among the highest of the 11 CMAs in this analysis.

Recent immigrants living in Winnipeg also had a very high employment rate (83.1%), ranking among the highest of the 11 CMAs in this analysis. Furthermore, of these eight mid-sized cities, the gap between the employment rate for very recent immigrants in Winnipeg and that of fellow Canadian-born city dwellers was the narrowest of all mid-sized CMAs, at just 12.7 percentage points.