A Two-Track Reality for Newcomers in Canada

By Mata Press Service

A woman arrives in Canada with a university degree, years of professional experience and hopes of rebuilding her career quickly. She finds work within a few months, which looks like a success on paper.

But the job is far below her training, her foreign credentials are still not fully recognized, and she is earning much less than Canadian-born workers with similar education. That story, Statistics Canada says, is being replayed thousands of times across Canada.

Two new reports from the federal number crunchers say recent immigrants are entering the labour market faster than earlier newcomer cohorts did, but many are still landing in jobs that do not match their education, field of study or experience.

Together, the reports show that while more newcomers are getting work sooner, many are still not getting the kind of work their qualifications should support.

Both reports were released as part of Statistics Canada’s Labour Market Research Series. One examined job mismatch among core working-age immigrants with postsecondary education. The other looked at the labour market experiences of recent working-age immigrants and non-permanent residents from 2019 to 2024.

The combined picture is one of improvement at the entry point, but persistent barriers after that first foothold is gained.

Statistics Canada said more than 1.4 million new immigrants were admitted to Canada from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2024, and nearly 60 per cent were between the ages of 25 and 54.

Over the same period, the number of non-permanent residents rose from 1.306 million in the third quarter of 2021 to a record 3.002 million in the third quarter of 2024. The agency said this rapid growth took place during a period of unusually strong labour demand after pandemic restrictions were lifted, creating a rare opening for many newcomers trying to enter the workforce.

Among recent working-age immigrants who did not already have a job before arriving and looked for work after landing, 42.5 per cent said they found their first job or started their first business in less than three months.

That was up from 31.3 per cent among immigrants who had arrived 10 to less than 15 years earlier. Statistics Canada said newer cohorts also reported somewhat better outcomes in getting work related to their foreign education and experience than immigrants who arrived earlier.

But faster entry did not mean the barriers had disappeared. Statistics Canada said 31.7 per cent of recent immigrants reported difficulties finding their first job or starting their first business. The most common obstacles included not having enough Canadian work experience or references, lacking labour-market connections, facing language barriers, and having foreign qualifications rejected or only partly accepted.

The second report shows how those problems continue even after work is found. Among workers aged 25 to 54 with a postsecondary certificate, diploma or degree, recent immigrants were much more likely than Canadian-born workers to say they were overqualified for their job. In September 2024 and September 2025, 32.6 per cent of recent immigrants reported being overqualified, compared with 19.1 per cent of Canadian-born workers. Recent immigrants were also nearly twice as likely to be working in jobs that usually require only a high school diploma or less, 25.6 per cent versus 13.2 per cent.

The gap remained even when workers had the same level of education. Among those with a bachelor’s degree, 29.1 per cent of recent immigrants were in jobs that usually require a high school diploma or less, compared with 9.9 per cent of Canadian-born workers. Among those with education above a bachelor’s degree, the figures were 16.1 per cent for recent immigrants and 2.8 per cent for Canadian-born workers.

Statistics Canada said recent immigrants with education above the bachelor’s level were about six times as likely as Canadian-born workers to be in jobs that typically require no more than high school.

The mismatch also showed up in whether a job was connected to what people had studied. Among workers with a bachelor’s degree, 22.3 per cent of recent immigrants said their job was mostly not or not at all related to their field of study, compared with 15.6 per cent of Canadian-born workers.

For those with education above the bachelor’s level, the gap was 13.6 per cent for recent immigrants and 5.4 per cent for the Canadian-born.

Statistics Canada said the mismatch tends to ease over time as immigrants become more established in Canada, but the adjustment can take years. Established immigrants, those who became permanent residents more than 10 years earlier, generally had better outcomes than recent immigrants, but still often trailed Canadian-born workers. That suggests the problem is not simply one of short-term transition after arrival.

Where a degree was earned also mattered. Among recent immigrants with bachelor’s degrees or higher earned outside Canada, those educated in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries were less likely to face education-related mismatch than immigrants whose highest degree came from non-OECD countries. Statistics Canada said recent immigrants with degrees from OECD countries were 13.6 percentage points less likely to be in jobs requiring only a high school diploma or less than those with degrees from non-OECD countries.

Credential recognition remained another weak point. Among working-age immigrants who applied to practise a regulated occupation based on foreign education and experience, fewer than half, 42.7 per cent, had received full recognition of their credentials by the third quarter of 2024. Another 34 per cent had received only partial recognition and still had to complete additional courses or training.

The reports also found that employment and wage gaps remained significant. In the third quarter of 2024, the employment rate for recent working-age immigrants was 75.5 per cent, compared with 85.4 per cent for core-aged Canadian-born workers. Average hourly wages were $29.97 for recent immigrants, compared with $39.29 for Canadian-born workers. Non-permanent residents earned even less, averaging $26.15 an hour.

In practical terms, the two reports say Canada did better during the post-pandemic labour crunch at helping many newcomers get into the workforce quickly. But they also show that finding work and building a career are not the same thing. For many immigrants, the first job still comes with lower pay, weaker recognition of foreign credentials and a much higher risk of working below their skill level.