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Research

Immigrants in Canada’s Skilled Trades: Untapped Talent Amid Growing Demand

Canada has set ambitious infrastructure development goals, including expanding our rail infrastructure, investing in clean energy, and building affordable housing. Achieving these priorities depends on having enough skilled tradespeople to do the work, now and in the future. But we face a growing challenge: The gap between the workers Canada has and the workers its infrastructure plans require is widening. While more people are registering in apprenticeship programs, many do not complete their program on time, or they leave their programs altogether.

While it can take years to train and certify new tradespeople domestically, immigration offers a path to grow the skilled trades workforce more quickly by drawing on workers who already have relevant training and experience. We conducted a literature review to understand the current representation of immigrants in the skilled trades and the challenges Canada faces in using skilled trades immigrant talent.

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Key insights

Immigrants are under-represented in the skilled trades, including in high-demand construction trades. Only 19 per cent of immigrants with foreign trades experience who intend to work in the trades in Canada become certified in their field after arrival.

The number of immigrants arriving with trade certifications continues to lag labour market needs, highlighting a gap between demand and the responsiveness of our current immigration programs.

Immigrants in the skilled trades have strong initial economic outcomes compared with other immigrants, but they earn less initially than their Canadian-born peers in the trades and see their wages stagnate over time.

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Have questions about our work? Do you need access to a report in English or French? Please contact communications@fsc-ccf.ca.