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The Canadian Labour Market at a Glance
Employment rates, by immigrant status and selected census years
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Recent immigrants continue to have lower employment rates than native-born Canadians
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The employment rates of immigrants and native-born Canadians increased from 2001 to 2006, particularly among those in the core working-age group, that is, people aged 25 to 54. In 2006, 67.0% of recent immigrants (people who had come to Canada from 2001 to 2006) in the core working-age group were employed, up 3.6 percentage points from 2001. That was a higher rate of increase than for native-born Canadians, and as a result, the employment rate gap between recent immigrants and non-immigrants shrank from 17.5 percentage points in 2001 to 15.4 percentage points in 2006.
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Recent immigrants continue to have lower employment rates than native-born Canadians. However, the employment rate gap between recent immigrants and non-immigrants has been narrowing since 1996, when it was at its largest (18.9 percentage points). The gap ranged between 0.7 percentage points in 1981 and 11.9 percentage points in 1991.
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However, recent immigrants have lower employment rates than immigrants who have been in Canada longer. For example, in 2006, 67.0% of immigrants aged 25 to 54 who had been in the country for five years or less were employed, compared with 76.1% of immigrants who had been in Canada for 6 to 10 years and 78.3% of those who had been in the country for 11 to 15 years. Those who had been in Canada for 16 years or more had an employment rate comparable to that of native-born Canadians (82.3% versus 82.4%).
Chart N.2
Employment rates of 25- to 54-year-olds,
by immigrant status and selected census years, 1981 to 2006
Sources: Statistics Canada, Censuses of population, 1981 to 2006.
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