Arabnews24.ca:Friday 7 April 2023 09:35 AM: Canada’s jobless rate continues to sit at around five percent as the country’s robust immigration agenda drives population growth and jobs.
According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, March is the fourth consecutive month in which the unemployment rate has held at five percent, keeping it close to a new record low.
Immigration remains the main source of new workers and the driver of population growth.
Most new jobs were in the private sector
In a 2022 report, Statscan reported that in the 2010s, newcomers made up 84 percent of labour force growth.
Despite continuing inflation and predictions of a “soft” recession this year, Canada’s economy added 35,000 jobs in March
Those 35,000 jobs, reports Statcan, were mostly in the private sector.
Canadian economy remains resilient
There were also job gains in transportation and warehousing, business, building, and other support services, including finance, real estate, rental and leasing.
The sectors that saw job losses were construction, other services and natural resources.
“Canada’s jobs juggernaut continues to roll onward with convincing momentum,” said Scotiabank vice-president Derek Holt in his analysis. “There are definitely forward-looking risks to the outlook, but at least so far, the Canadian job market and the Canadian economy remain highly resilient.”
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Strength of job market rules out rate cut
The Bank of Canada’s interest rate currently sits on a “pause” at 4.5 percent. Holt warns that the new jobs report suggests no cut in that rate is imminent.
As employers kept their hiring appetite growing, wages also continued to rise in March, with average hourly wages up 5.3 percent on an annual basis.
The Canadian labour market remains tight, with no end in sight as employers continue to hire despite high-interest rates that have raised the cost of borrowing for both individuals and businesses.
Business owners are hungrily tapping into this wave of thousands of newcomers arriving monthly.
Canada’s immigration plan remains ambitious
Canada has an ambitious and deliberate plan to increase the supply of workers.
Canada’s ambitious immigration targets are definitely fuelling rental demand and competition for available rental accommodation.
The country plans to welcome 465,000 new immigrants this year after admitting a record-breaking 431,000 newcomers in 2022 (mostly from India, the Phillippines and China).
Canada also seeks to land 485,000 newcomers in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025.
More than 60 percent of those newcomers will migrate through economic programs.
Record number of international students
In addition, the country has also welcomed a record number of international students, with those numbers continuing to rise.
Besides filling jobs, Canada’s immigration plan has also fueled rental demand and competition for available rental accommodation.
Canadians continue to leave the workforce
And, according to a recent study by Statistics Canada, newcomers to Canada are filling many of the positions left by domestic workers for a variety of reasons that, include:
retirement a return to school having an illness or disability personal or family reasonsThe demographic profile of immigrants filling those jobs shows that, according to the 2021 census, about three-quarters of immigrants who have been in Canada for 10 or fewer years were between the ages of 25 and 54. Those are considered the prime years for working and encompass the GenX, Millennial and GenZ generations.
Among people who were born in Canada, the proportion in that same age bracket was 46 percent.
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