Recent immigrants to Canada are increasingly finding jobs that match their educational qualifications, marking a positive shift since 2016.
This improvement is particularly significant for newcomers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, as outlined in a Statistics Canada report by Christoph Schimmele and Feng Hou titled “Trends in education–occupation mismatch among recent immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher.”
The report, which examines the economic performance of immigrants in Canada from 2001 to 2021, highlights how those with higher education levels are more adaptable to labour market changes and experience steeper growth in employment earnings.
Historically, a significant challenge for immigrants has been the “education-occupation mismatch,” wherein individuals hold higher educational credentials than their current jobs require.
This mismatch often leads to reduced employment income, productivity, and well-being.
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From 2001 to 2016, Canada saw an increase of 1.7 million workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, only half of these individuals found employment in high-skill occupations, reflecting a trend of underutilization among newcomers.
In contrast, younger Canadians experienced a modest decrease in their mismatch rate during the same period.
Encouragingly, the study found notable improvements post-2016. Employment growth from 2016 to 2021 was more concentrated in high-skilled occupations for both recent immigrants and younger Canadian-born workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Specifically, 59% of employment growth for recent immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher was in high-skilled occupations between 2016 and 2021, compared to just 32% from 2001 to 2016.
For younger Canadian-born workers with degrees, the relative growth in high-skilled employment was 90% from 2016 to 2021, compared to 61% in the previous 15 years.
During this period, the total number of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher grew by 15.9%, but their employment in high-skilled occupations increased by 17.8%, indicating a positive trend for the Canadian workforce overall.
Overeducation Rate
Despite these advancements, the study notes that a significant percentage of recent immigrants with degrees were still in mismatched occupations as of 2021. The rate of education-occupation match for recent immigrants was lower than it was 20 years ago, and the gap between recent immigrants and young Canadian workers was larger in 2021 compared to 2001.
The overeducation rate among recent immigrants remained more than double that of young Canadian workers.
The overeducation rate varied significantly by region of origin, being highest among immigrants from Southeast Asia (54.7%) and lowest among those from Northern Europe (7.3%).
A considerable proportion of Southeast Asian immigrants were admitted as caregivers, a subgroup with an overeducation rate of 69.2%. However, since 2016, overeducation rates have fallen across all regions, with the largest decrease among Southeast Asian immigrants, dropping from 35.6% to 26.9%.
Other regions experiencing declines include Central and South America (from 30.0% to 23.9%) and East Asia (from 22.5% to 17.6%).
These findings underscore a crucial improvement in the employment landscape for recent immigrants to Canada, reflecting better alignment between their educational qualifications and job opportunities.
