Canada’s unemployment rate falls to all-time low of 5.2%

Canada’s unemployment rate has fallen to a new all-time low once again.

Statistics Canada reports it fell to 5.2 per cent in April, down from the previous record of 5.3 per cent that was set in March.

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The unemployment rate for people aged 25 to 54 is even lower, as it stands at 4.3 per cent, which is also the lowest recorded rate ever since comparable data became available in 1976.

The unemployment rate among immigrants fell to 5.5 per cent in April, compared to 5.8 per cent in March.

It fell across the three immigrant cohorts reported by Statistics Canada.

It fell to 7.8 per cent among immigrants who gained permanent residence within the last five years, compared to 8.3 per cent in April.

Among immigrants that gained permanent residence between 5 to 10 years ago, it fell to 5.8 per cent compared to 6.3 per cent in March.

Among immigrants that gained permanent residence 10 years ago or more, it stood at 4.6 per cent in April compared to 4.8 per cent in March.

Overall Canada has a historically high job vacancy rate with over 800,000 unfilled jobs.

This is resulting in the federal government and provinces across Canada seeking to ease their Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) rules.

For instance, Alberta announced earlier this week it was lifting all occupations from a previous “refusal to process” list it operated to forbid employers from seeking to recruit foreign workers in occupations that had labour surpluses.

In April, the federal government eased its TFWP rules in response to Canada’s historically low unemployment rate and historically high job vacancy rate.

Canada is also looking to welcome more immigrants to address its labour force needs. Under the Immigration Levels Plan 2022-2024, Canada is looking to welcome over 430,000 immigrants per year, most of whom will arrive under the economic class.

The main way the Canadian government looks to welcome economic class immigrants is through Express Entry. Following a temporary pause in invitations to the two main Express Entry programs, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) recently announced the news it will resume Express Entry invitations to all candidates beginning in early July.

It will also look to bring the permanent residence processing time for Express Entry applicants to six months beginning in July.

One of the reasons this is major news is Express Entry will re-emerge as Canada’s main economic class immigration pathway. Express Entry will account for one-quarter of Canada’s immigrant admissions come 2024, a total of over 110,000 immigrants who will be welcomed by Canada on their basis to contribute to the labour market.

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