Labour Market Matters - October 2012

About 20% of Canadians work in regulated occupations. On average, regulated occupations are expected to provide higher pay because they generally require a high level of education and/or training, and the regulations governing access to these occupations tend to restrict entrance into them. Canada’s immigration policy favors immigrants with high educational backgrounds, which can lead to working in regulated occupations. About 60% of Canadian immigrants fall into the economic category (skilled workers and business immigrants), as opposed to the family reunification and refugee categories. Access to regulated occupations, is directly linked with the issue of foreign credential recognition – a widely-recognized disadvantage for immigrants in the labour market. Estimates of the loss to the Canadian economy from the underuse of immigrant skills vary between $2 and $5.9 billion each year. The economic position of immigrants in Canada is well documented. However, the number and proportion of immigrants working in regulated and unregulated occupations is unknown. A study by CLSRN affiliates Magali Girard (University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre) and Michael Smith (McGill University) entitled “Working in a Regulated Occupation in Canada: An Immigrant – Native Born Comparison†* tries to determine whether individuals with foreign education are indeed less likely to be employed in a regulated occupation than someone with domestic credentials, and if so, what are the factors that influence this situation. Pre-immigration human capital’s portability and relevance in the host country are important contributing factors to the earning outcomes of recent immigrants in many developed nations. Given Canadian immigration policy’s emphasis on attracting highly-educated individuals, immigrants to Canada are very likely to have worked in high-skilled occupations prior to immigrating. Following immigration however, many do not find employment in high skill occupations. In a paper entitled: “The Portability of New Immigrants’ Human Capital: Language, Education and Occupational Matching†* CLSRN affiliates Arthur Sweetman (McMaster University), Casey Warman (Dalhousie University) and Gustave Goldmann (Carleton University) examine the implications of human capital portability for new immigrants to Canada for earnings – including interactions between education, language skills and pre- and post-immigration occupational matching. *Previous versions of these papers were released in the CLSRN Working Paper Series.