Statistics Canada reports that women between 25 and 54 years of age (core working age) experienced a 0.4% increase in employment in the November 2022.
It is particularly interesting to examine the latest employment outcomes of recent Canadian immigrants following Canada’s most recent Immigration Levels Plan (2023-2025) which announced record-high immigration targets. In November 2022, core working-age women who immigrated to Canada over the last five years had an employment rate of 69.7%. For recent Canadian immigrants of core working age, this represents the highest employment rate in 16 years.
The total employment rate among core working-age Canadians increased by 0.8% YOY in November 2022, led by women. There is now an employment rate of 81.6% for this group, surpassing the previous record of 81.4% set in May 2022. The employment rate for core working-aged men has also increased to 87.8%.
Canada’s General Employment Trends
In November 2022, Canadian employment increased by 10,000 jobs across the country and the unemployment rate fell to 5.1% in November. Despite this relatively minor increase in employment, “average hourly wages for employees remained above 5% in November, increasing to $32.11 from November of 2021”. As a result, newcomers to Canada will have access to more employment opportunities while also seeing an increase in earnings.
Provincial Employment Trends
The employment opportunities available to newcomers in Canada are one of the factors newcomers consider before deciding where to live. According to the latest Labour Force Survey, different regions experienced different employment outcomes across Canada’s 13 provinces and territories.
In Canada’s remaining four provinces and three territories, employment increased in Quebec while declining in five other provinces and territories.
Quebec: Overall employment rose by 28,000 jobs in November 2022, while unemployment fell to 3.8%. Most of the reported employment gains were concentrated in Montréal, where employment rose by 1.1%.
Prince Edward Island: The unemployment rate jumped to 6.8% as a result of a 1.7% decline in employment.
Newfoundland and Labrador: While employment declined by 1.5%, the unemployment rate remained relatively steady at 10.7%.
Manitoba: The unemployment rate in the province remained at 4.4% despite a decline in employment by 0.8%.
Alberta: Employment in the province decreased by 0.6%, raising the unemployment rate to 5.8%.
British Columbia: There was a 0.5% decline in employment in British Columbia in November, with all losses coming from part-time employment.
Ontario: Unemployment in the province declined by 0.4 percentage points (to 5.5%).
Industry-Specific Employment Trends
Employment in Canada increased in the following industries: finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, manufacturing, information, culture, and recreation (ICR). “The number of people employed in finance, insurance, real estate, rentals, and leasing rose by 21,000 in November” while 11.2% held jobs in retail trade.
The manufacturing industry saw an increase of 1.1% in November 2022 across Canada, with a 4.7% increase in employment in Alberta. More than 10,000 manufacturing jobs were created in Quebec, another notable increase in employment in this industry.
The employment rate in the ICR industry increased by 1.9% in November and by 4.5% over the past year. Across Canada, however, employment declined in the construction, wholesale, and retail industries.
Employment in the construction industry has dropped by 1.6% since the last Labour Force Survey in October 2022. Those declines were particularly evident in Alberta and British Columbia. There was also a 0.8% drop in employment in wholesale and retail trade in November, a total decline of 4.4% since May 2022. The bulk of the decline occurred in Ontario and Alberta.
It was also reported that employment in Canada’s professional, scientific, and technical services industries declined by 0.8% in November 2022 and that employment in the information and communications technology industry decreased by 3.8% YOY, with fewer than 34,000 people employed in the sector in November 2021.
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