Tag Archive: jobs
Ontario to make it easier for immigrants to work in their professions
October 21, 2021
[REPRODUCED FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS]
Ontario is set to introduce legislation that would make it easier for immigrants to get licensed to work in professions that match their areas of expertise.
Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says the proposed legislation would, if passed, prevent many regulatory bodies from requiring immigrants to have Canadian work experience to get licensed.
It would also standardize English-language testing requirements and ensure licensing applications are processed faster.
McNaughton says the changes would help remove barriers immigrants often face when trying to work in their professions.
“It really is an injustice when you think of only 25 per cent of immigrants in Ontario work actually in jobs and professions that they were trained for,” he said in an interview.
“It’s all about improving their lives, ensuring that they get bigger paychecks and more worker protections.”
McNaughton says Ontario is facing a labour shortage as some 293,000 jobs are unfilled across the province.
The proposed legislation would apply to licensing bodies governing engineers, architects, teachers, accountants and social workers, among other. But it would not affect those regulating medical professions, including those that licence doctors and nurses.
The legislation would also help internationally trained workers in 23 trades, including electricians, plumbers and hoisting engineers.
Licensing bodies would still be able to apply for exemptions that could require Canadian work experience, but that would need government approval, McNaughton said.
“They have to make a health and safety case, which would come to the minister for approval,” he said, noting that he hoped to see the changes brought by the legislation take effect in two years.
The director of engineering training projects at ACCES Employment, an organization that help newcomers find suitable jobs in Ontario, said removing the Canadian work experience requirement would help immigrant engineers get licensed and hired a lot faster.
Gabriela Tavaru said immigrant engineers cannot work in their profession before they get their professional license, regardless of how many years of experience they had before they came to Ontario.
“Starting a job, performance evaluation, the whole system, it’s new. So it’s a little bit too difficult for any immigrant and especially for regulated professionals like engineers to navigate this process and get a job,” she said.
She said a maximum of four years of international experience is recognized by the licensing body for engineers in Ontario, but a minimum of one year of Canadian work experience in the field is also required. Immigrant engineers have to work for a year under the supervision of a licensed Canadian engineer to gain that experience.
“This is the problem: you cannot get a job to get your license,” she said. “They cannot be engineers. They cannot sign contracts. They cannot be called engineer, but they can work, for example, as estimators, project managers, field coordinators.”
Don’t Look Now, But Canadian Jobs Might Actually Be Booming
September 7, 2016
Yesterday, The Huffington Post Canada published an interesting article, written by Daniel Tencer, regarding the Canadian job market. Considering how many inquiries our law firm receives on a daily basis about the Canadian job market and job prospects for new immigrants to this country, we thought this article was worthy of sharing with you and have reproduced its contents, below.
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For those of you worried about all the bad news coming out recently about Canada’s job market, here’s a rare bit of good news: Those negative numbers might just be wrong.
Statistics Canada’s closely-watched labour force survey (LFS) has depressed job-seekers almost every month this year, but an alternate measure of jobs from the agency suggests the job market is actually doing very nicely, thank you very much.
StatsCan’s survey of payroll employment, earnings and hours (SEPH) found Canada added a whopping 52,700 jobs in June of this year, the latest month for which data is available in the SEPH. The earlier labour force survey had declared that Canada had lost 38,000 full-time jobs that month, excluding self-employment.
Media tend not to report on the (currently more positive) SEPH survey, because it comes out some six weeks later than the LFS, and the two often reflect similar trends. But right now the two job-market measures paint a picture of the past year that are like night and day.
The labour force survey found Canada has added a measly 0.6 per cent net new jobs over the past year, not enough to keep up with population growth of about 1.1 per cent. But the SEPH begs to differ: It says Canada added 1.2 per cent new jobs over the past year, more than population growth.
So … which one’s right?
(Photo: Mike Kemp via Getty Images)
“The truth is often somewhere in between,” wrote Bank of Montreal senior economist Benjamin Reitzes in a recent client note.
He noted that the large discrepancy between the two job measures “is not all that uncommon historically.”
That’s at least in part because these two surveys are just that — surveys, which have a margin of error.
In the case of the headline-grabbing labour force survey, that margin is 53,400 jobs, 19 times out of 20. So when the LFS says that Canada added 10,000 jobs, it means Canada may have added as many as 63,400 jobs, or it may have lost as many as 43,400 jobs. And one time out of 20, it’s not even that accurate.
Ouch. That’s pretty much why the experts tell you not to put too much stock in the monthly numbers — they really don’t mean much. It’s the cumulative numbers over months and years that paint a more accurate picture.
The Stanley Park seawall in Vancouver. British Columbia is Canada’s job-creation winner this year. (Photo: George Rose/Getty Images)
On a regional basis, StatsCan’s two measures paint a more similar picture. They both show Alberta is Canada’s weak spot for jobs right now, with the total number of jobs in the province falling three per cent in the past year, or 2.2 per cent, depending on which survey you believe.
And Ontario and British Columbia are still the winners, regardless of the survey you’re looking at.
B.C. is the hands-down jobs champion, adding 2.9 per cent new jobs, or 3.1 per cent new jobs, depending on the survey. Ontario takes the silver medal, adding 0.9 per cent new jobs in the labour force survey, and 2.3 per cent new jobs in the alternate SEPH.
So don’t panic about Canada’s job situation just yet. When it comes to unemployment data, sometimes the numbers are little more than a shot in the dark.
Canada’s economy creates 24,700 jobs in May
June 16, 2010
Employment Opportunities in Canada
The Canadian economy keeps outperforming expectations, continuing a trend of strong monthly gains by adding 24,700 jobs in May after a massive pick-up the previous month.
Economists had expected a more modest 15,000 increase, particularly following April’s oversized 108,000 gain.
Several underlying factors in the May numbers announced Friday by Statistics Canada pointed to a labour market that is returning to health quickly after the 2008-09 recession.
Statistics Canada noted that the job gains would have been stronger but for the loss of 42,500 part-time workers and 28,000 from the self-employment ranks.
May saw a 67,300 increase in full-time workers, an indication employers are increasing work hours as they step up production.
And there was more good news in the May numbers regular employment rose dramatically by 52,800 jobs, and the private sector added 43,400 workers.
Even the summer labour market for students showed signs of normalizing, with 54,000 more students aged 20 to 24 finding employment last month, an increase of 3.1 percentage points compared to May 2009 when the economy was in the throes of a deep slump.
“The exceptionally strong employment growth over the past few months highlights the positive momentum in the Canadian economy, and reinforces the Bank of Canada’s rationale to hike rates earlier this week despite the turmoil in Europe,” wrote BMO Capital Markets chief economist Sherry Cooper.
“Canadian employment is now only 108,000 from the peak hit in October 2008, and is up 1.7 per cent from a year ago, much better than the still-negative yearly change in the U.S.”
Despite the increases in all the major categories, Canada’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.1 per cent. That’s because more people were drawn into the labour force in anticipation of finding work.
Employment gains in Canada have generally surpassed economists’ expectations since last July, when the economy began to come out of its nearly year-long slide.
Since then, Canada’s economy has added 310,000 jobs, recouping about 75 per cent of the losses suffered during the recession.
“Job creation was bound to slow after the April figure knocked the socks off expectations,” said TD Bank senior economist Pascal Gauthier.
“All said, the latest employment data confirms a relatively strong domestic economic recovery that has begun to mature where incremental gains diminish while becoming self-sustaining.”
Among core-aged workers, women have fared better than men by almost two-to-one.
The government agency said the key gains last month came in the transportation and warehousing industries, as well as health care and social assistance, and public administration.
Construction, which has been strong of late, was little changed last month, as was the factory sector.
There were also setbacks in the accommodation and food services sector, information, culture and recreation, and in natural resources.
Regionally, all provinces except British Columbia and Prince Edward Island saw employment rise or remain steady in May, with Ontario registering the biggest increase with a 17,700 pick-up.
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