Recent immigrants reached new employment high in 2018

The employment rate among recent immigrants between the ages of 25 and 54 reached a 12-year high in 2018, The Canadian Press is reporting.

The news agency obtained a federal Finance Ministry memo from January that says the employment rate for immigrants in this age group who landed in Canada less than five years prior was 71 per cent.

This was the highest level recorded since 2006 and the memo said a similar trend was observed among immigrants who had landed in Canada between five and 10 years prior.

The increase comes as more immigrants are entering Canada under the federal government's new multi-year immigration levels plan, the memo observes, which the ministry said reflected Canada's high job-creation numbers.

The document attributed the strong employment results to the fact many federal and provincial immigration programs are focused on human capital factors such as education, skilled work experience and proficiency in English or French.

The memo posits that Canada's positive attitude toward immigrants in Canada is helping outcomes for immigrants more generally.

The memo also touched on outcomes for second-generation Canadians, who it said are faring better than the children of Canadian-born parents when it comes to both education and income.

Just over 40 per cent of second-generation Canadians between the ages of 25 and 44 had a university degree, compared to only 24 per cent of Canadians whose parents were born in Canada.

In terms of income, second-generation Canadians earned on average just under $4,000 more per year than their peers with two Canadian parents ($55,500 to $51,600).

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