Recent immigrants finding jobs faster in Canada

Canadian employers are drawing recent immigrants into jobs more quickly than in the past, but are still failing to fully use their skills, according to a report.

Two Statistics Canada (StatCan) studies detailing labour market outcomes for immigrants and non-permanent residents between 2019 and 2025 show this pattern.

The first study – Labour market experiences of recent working-age immigrants and non-permanent residents, 2019 to 2024 – examines immigrants and non-permanent residents aged 25 to 54 who arrived in the five years preceding the third quarter of 2024. The period was marked by tight labour market conditions and a rapid increase in the number of immigrants and non-permanent residents, StatCan noted.

StatCan reports that working-age immigrants who had arrived in Canada during this period “generally fared better than previous cohorts with regards to several aspects of their initial integration into the labour market.”

A surge in immigration to Canada has contributed to labour shortages rather than alleviating them, according to a previous C.D. Howe Institute report.

Barriers to first jobs for immigrants

Among recent working-age immigrants who were not employed on arrival, 42.5 per cent had found a job or started a business in Canada less than three months after arriving, according to StatCan. This compares with 31.3 per cent for working-age immigrants who arrived 10 to less than 15 years earlier, indicating a substantial improvement in early labour market attachment.

Despite this faster entry, barriers to securing a first job remain significant. StatCan notes that “over 3 in 10 (31.7 per cent) recent working-age immigrants reported experiencing difficulties finding their first job,” even in a period of strong overall labour demand.

Among those who experienced difficulties, the most commonly cited obstacles were: 

• not having enough job experience or references in Canada (42.2 per cent)
• having no connections in the job market (38.3 per cent)
• and “job experience from outside Canada not being accepted” (34.6 per cent)

Overqualification and field mismatch widespread

The second StatCan article – "Job mismatch among core working age immigrants with postsecondary education" – uses monthly Labour Force Survey supplements from September 2024 and September 2025 to assess job mismatch among core-aged workers with post-secondary credentials. It compares recent immigrants with established immigrants and Canadian-born workers.

The government agency finds that “core-aged … recent immigrants with a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree remained more likely than established immigrants and persons born in Canada to experience various forms of job mismatch.”

On average in September 2024 and September 2025, close to one-third (32.6 per cent) of core-aged recent immigrants with postsecondary qualifications reported being overqualified for their job, compared with almost 1 in 5 (19.1 per cent) persons born in Canada.

The study also reports that “recent immigrants with post-secondary credentials were more likely to be in a job that was not related to their field of study (20.8 per cent) compared with persons born in Canada with post-secondary credentials (15.6 per cent).” 

Experience does not erase mismatch

Job mismatch persists even when comparing workers with similar levels of experience. According to StatCan, “for a given level of work experience, recent core-aged immigrants were more likely than persons born in Canada to report having more skills than needed for their job.”

Among those with post-secondary qualifications and less than five years of experience, “22.5 per cent of recent immigrants … reported having more skills than needed for their job, compared with 14.2 per cent of their Canadian-born counterparts.” This suggests that differences in job match are not only a function of time in the labour market.

Canadian employers have spent decades using university degrees as an easy filter for job candidates, particularly as applicant volumes grew and HR teams looked for simple ways to triage large piles of résumés. But growing evidence suggests that habit is leaving critical skills on the table, according to a previous report.

The issue of immigrant underemployment remains a persistent problem in Canada, despite policies aimed at integrating highly skilled global talent into the workforce.

How can employers address the skills mismatch?

Here’s what employers can do about this issue, according to a report from Masoud Kianpour, a sociologist and social psychologies from the Toronto Metropolitan University:

• Invest in digital hard skills training
  • Provide newcomers with training on core workplace technologies (e.g., Applicant Tracking Systems, Learning Management Systems, cloud-sharing tools, virtual meeting platforms, and cybersecurity basics).
  • Build structured digital onboarding modules that explicitly teach how your organisation uses these tools, rather than assuming prior familiarity.
• Explicitly develop soft skills and digital communication skills
  • Offer coaching on e‑mail etiquette, professional tone, turn‑taking in virtual meetings, and presenting in online settings.
  • Include practice for “Canadian workplace” norms such as speaking up in meetings, asking questions, and appropriate self‑advocacy in digital channels.
  • Recognise that “for newcomers, onboarding is not just about a new company; it is also about onboarding to Canada,” and design orientation accordingly.
• Modernise hiring and assessment for a digital workplace
  • Add simple, job‑relevant tasks to interviews (e.g., using a collaboration tool, drafting a short e‑mail, joining a virtual meeting) to assess digital communication skills fairly.
  • Focus on whether candidates can transfer experience from similar platforms, instead of requiring experience with a single specific tool.
  • Offer résumé support or clear guidance in job postings so internationally trained candidates understand how to target applications to your criteria.
• Strengthen virtual onboarding and hybrid integration
  • Combine virtual and in‑person components where possible, ensuring newcomers have opportunities for informal interaction, relationship‑building and observation of workplace culture.
  • Use buddy systems or peer mentors to help newcomers navigate both the organisation’s digital environment and broader Canadian work norms.
  • Time early tasks and check‑ins deliberately, so managers can spot digital skill gaps and respond with support instead of treating them as performance failures.
• Build social capital, not just technical access
  • Create online communities, interest groups and cross‑team channels that help newcomers build networks, ask questions and share experiences.
  • Encourage managers to facilitate introductions across teams and levels, so newcomers are visible and can access information and informal support.
  • Use social media and enterprise social platforms to highlight newcomers’ contributions and expertise, increasing their visibility and sense of belonging.
• Address unequal impacts and avoid assumptions
  • Recognise that digital skill gaps can relate to age, gender, culture, income and prior access to technology, and design training that is inclusive rather than targeted only at newcomers.
  • Avoid assuming that younger workers or immigrant workers automatically “know” how to use all digital tools effectively; verify needs and offer support.
  • Regularly review recruitment and onboarding practices for subtle biases (e.g., penalising different communication styles or accents in virtual settings).
• Partner with specialised organisations and programs
  • Collaborate with settlement service provider organisations (SSPOs) and sector councils to offer pre‑arrival and early‑arrival digital workplace preparation.
  • Leverage programs like online pre‑arrival workplace integration courses that familiarise newcomers with Canadian work practices before day one.
  • Co‑design digital skills and soft skills workshops with community partners who understand newcomers’ contexts and barriers.

“Workplace integration is a multifaceted process influenced by many factors, including organisational culture and climate, social capital, and the affordances of online platforms,” the author of the report says. “Understanding and navigating these complex dynamics are crucial for organisations aiming to create inclusive and thriving environments, especially in the face of unprecedented challenges that can lead to new and changing work arrangements. As the workplace continues to evolve, staying attuned to the nuances of cultural integration, leveraging social and linguistic capital, and effectively utilising online communication tools will be essential for fostering a cohesive and dynamic organisational culture in which new employees can successfully integrate.”

When skilled immigrants arrive in Canada, they are told the country needs their expertise to solve a growing productivity crisis and looming labour shortages. However, Canadian employers are often overlooking these workers, multicultural workplace expert John Edward McGraw previously told Canadian HR Reporter.