Economic and Social Reports, November 2024 

There are four new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Almost half of work permit holders who become permanent residents stay in their initial industries in Canada

Temporary foreign workers (TFWs) can play a long-lasting role in alleviating labour shortages. However, not all TFWs remain in their initial industries after gaining permanent residency. The article "Foreign workers in Canada: Industry retention after transitioning to permanent residency among work permit holders for work purposes" provides a comprehensive analysis of the industry retention of TFWs after their permanent residency transition. It found that, five years after transitioning, 43% of work permit holders who became permanent residents from 2011 to 2015 remained in the same industrial sector.

Retention rates were below 25% in sectors like agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting; real estate and rental and leasing; and administrative and support, waste management, and remediation services. In contrast, retention was 65% in the health care and social assistance sector. The retention rate was 47% in accommodation and food services and 45% in professional, scientific and technical services, two of the largest sectors hiring work permit holders.

These differences across sectors are likely influenced by factors such as wage levels, working conditions, job stability and specific skill requirements. Understanding industry retention can assist businesses and policy-makers in developing workforce programs tailored to the needs of both the industry and its workers.

Along with this article, a presentation summarizing a series of articles on TFWs' labour market engagement, their transition to permanent residency and provincial and industry retention is being released today. For more information, see "Research to Insights: Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada."

Mapping associations between property crime and business locations in Toronto

It is generally thought that perceptions of crime in an area factor into consumers' decisions of where to visit and businesses' decisions of where to invest. An innovative new study, "Exploring property crime and business locations: Using spatial analysis and firm count data to reveal correlations in Toronto, Ontario," explores the relationships between the population, business counts and property crime across Toronto from 2017 to 2020. Using 500-metre-by-500-metre spatial grids, these relationships are mapped out across Toronto, separating residential and business areas to better understand how they relate to crime.

While crime might discourage businesses from locating in a neighbourhood, their presence may also create an opportunity for crime. After accounting for the population of grid squares, a positive association between business counts and crime was found. This was specifically the case for consumer-facing businesses, which may face greater exposure to crime due to serving the broader public. In addition, there were geographic clusters of high and low crime rates that could not be attributed to chance. The findings point, among other things, to the need for further investigation into what factors underlie these clusters.

This work sets the foundation for future analysis that would examine how variations in crime rates across space and time affect business outcomes.

A comparison of earnings across population groups

There are two other studies in today's issue, "Cumulative earnings of Black, Chinese, South Asian and White individuals born in Canada" and "Gender earnings ratio differences among population groups in Canada." These studies present two different aspects of earnings comparisons: one explores differences across selected population groups in cumulative earnings by gender, and the other examines the gender earnings gap present within different population groups. Read more in the Daily release, "Comparison of earnings between population groups."