Overall, the economic outlooks shows strong employment growth over the next few years with many opportunities for newcomers.
At the beginning of the pandemic, immigrants who had landed in the last five years experienced higher unemployment levels than Canadian born workers.
However, over the course of the pandemic, that shifted.
As of January 2022, the employment rate for newcomers is now 7% above its pre-pandemic average.
“Immigrants had this major decrease initially in their total employment levels,” says Marc Desormeaux, senior economist at Scotiabank. “But there’s been a fast bounce back since – faster than the bounce back for Canadian born workers. Immigrant workers are now well above where they were before the pandemic.”
Desormeaux expects this to continue and sees it as a good sign for future immigrant job growth.