Immigrant labour market outcomes, by educational attainment

Immigrants much more likely to have a university education

On average, landed immigrants to Canada between the ages of 25 and 54 had higher educational levels than did those born in Canada. In 2006, very recent immigrants were more than twice as likely as Canadian born to have a university degree. More specifically, almost a third (31.8%) of very recent immigrants had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2006 compared to one-sixth (16.1%) of Canadian born. Furthermore, another one in five very recent immigrants had a graduate degree compared to just over one in twenty Canadian born (Chart 7).

Chart 7  Share of highest level of education, ages 25 to 54, both sexes, by immigrant type, 2006

Higher unemployment rates for university-educated immigrants

The type of employment that immigrants find affects not only their earnings and their financial security, but may also affect their satisfaction with life in Canada. Even the most educated immigrants can face difficulties upon landing in Canada such as language barriers and lack of foreign credential recognition and Canadian work experience; these difficulties are often reflected in their labour market outcomes.

In 2006, very recent immigrants (aged 25 to 54) faced the most difficulties in the labour market, regardless of their level of education. While unemployment rates for the Canadian born declined as educational attainment increased, for very recent immigrants, their unemployment rates actually changed little with higher educational attainment. For example, very recent immigrants with bachelor’s degrees had an unemployment rate that was almost four times the unemployment rate for the university-educated Canadian born (11.4% vs. 2.9%) (Table 8). The unemployment rate for very recent immigrants with a graduate degree increased further still to 12.4% compared to 2.4% for Canadian born. This higher unemployment rate may have been partially influenced by a desire of these highly-educated immigrants to continue their job search until they find a job that will make use of their skills. However, further research on this issue is required.

In 2006, recent immigrants had far less difficulty obtaining employment with just 6.8% of those with bachelor degrees in search of work – although this was still higher than the Canadian-born rate. The proportion of recent immigrants with a post-secondary certificate or diploma who were looking for work was no different from that of Canadian born with the same level of education.

Regardless of education level, both very recent and recent immigrants had employment rates that were significantly lower than those for the Canadian born in 2006. Very recent immigrants with either high school graduation, or a bachelor’s degree experienced the largest gap between their employment rates compared to their Canadian-born counterparts, each trailing the associated Canadian-born rate by 24 percentage points. Among recent immigrants, the largest gap was for those with only a high school graduation (67.8% vs. 81.5%, or a 13.7 percentage point gap).

Table 8  Labour market characteristics by educational attainment, ages 25 to 54, by immigrant type, 2006