Kareem El-Assal - 13 December, 2020
The Canadian government's newest Labour Force Survey (LFS) data shows very recent immigrants are performing better in the job market during the coronavirus pandemic.
Among very recent immigrants who have landed in Canada within the last five years, the employment rate was 65.6 per cent in November, which is nearly the same as what it was prior to the pandemic in February 2020. The main reason for the high rate of employment among them is the significant reduction in new immigrants arriving to Canada during the pandemic. New immigrants tend to need some time to land on their feet in the Canadian job market.
Meanwhile, the employment rate among immigrants who landed in Canada over five years ago was 58.1 per cent. This is 1.2 percentage points lower than prior to the pandemic. Statistics Canada suggests that in this regard, these immigrants are performing better amid the pandemic than Canadian-born workers.
The employment rate for Canadian-born workers was 59.7 per cent in November, which is 1.7 percentage points lower than its February level.
Overall, employment in Canada increased by 62,000 jobs in November. In October, job growth was 84,000. Job growth in recent months has slowed significantly compared with the average growth of 2.7 per cent jobs per month between May and September, when Canada was emerging from COVID-19 economic lockdowns.
Recently, however, provinces across Canada have re-imposed stricter lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Canada's unemployment rate was 8.5 per cent in November, which was 0.4 percentage points lower than in October.
Prior to the pandemic, Canada enjoyed some of its lowest unemployment rates in history. One major reason is the aging of its population was seeing more workers retire. This explains why Canada has been welcoming higher levels of immigration and will aim to welcome over 400,000 new immigrants per year under its 2021-2023 Immigration Levels Plan.
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