Arrivals under Temporary Foreign Worker Program drop to lowest level in two years

Monthly new arrivals on work permits issued through Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) have sunk to their lowest level in nearly two years, according to the latest data published by the federal government.

There were only 2,615 new admissions through the TFWP in November of 2025—the most recent month for which data is available.

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This is the lowest number net of new monthly admissions listed on the immigration department's temporary resident numbers web page, which tallies monthly admissions back to December of 2023, and was updated with the most recent numbers on January 20, 2026.

The slide in temporary resident admissions aligns with the government’s repositioning of temporary resident admissions targets in its latest annual Immigration Levels Plan, which cut the target for annual admissions under the TFWP in the year 2026 to 60,000—a 27% decrease from the previous plan’s notional target of 82,000 for the year 2026.

Lower arrivals through the TFWP have been driven largely by the federal government’s moratorium on the processing of Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) under the low-wage stream of the TFWP.

To apply for or renew a work permit under the TFWP, a foreign national must include proof of their employer’s positive or neutral LMIA—a document issued by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) showing that the hiring of a foreign national for that position is not expected have a negative impact on the availability of jobs for Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

Since September 2024, the federal government has maintained a moratorium on the processing of LMIA applications under the low-wage stream of the TFWP in economic regions with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

The list of regions with higher than 6% unemployment is updated quarterly.

The most recent list, published on Jan 8, 2026, includes 24 regions in the moratorium, including Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa.

Seven major cities dropped off the list in the most recent update, including Vancouver, Halifax, and Winnipeg.

Although far fewer permits are issued through the TFWP than through Canada's other work permit program, the International Mobility Program (IMP), the TFWP can be considered Canada’s flagship employer-driven work permit program, as it allows employers to hire foreign nationals for any occupation, and from any country, so long as the worker meets Canada’s general admission requirements and the employer has a positive or neutral LMIA.

The International Mobility Program, in contrast, has much more restrictive requirements. IMP work permits are available only to foreign nationals in specific situations, such as international student graduates or executives transferred to Canadian branches of multinational corporations.

These cuts to the TFWP have materialized following several years during which the program has come under fire by various critics—including the Conservative Party of Canada, which called for the program’s abolition last September.

Also last September, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that additional changes for the TFWP were already in the works, with the goal of achieving “a focused approach that targets specific, strategic sectors, and needs in specific regions.”

No further details on the pending changes have been released, as of the time of writing.

The cuts to the TFWP align with the government's broader program of curbing temporary resident levels across the board, with the aim of reducing the number of temporary residents to less than 5% of Canada's population by the end of the year 2027.

The latest annual Immigration Levels Plan set the 2026 target for international student admissions at 155,000, down from the notional 2026 target of 305,900 in the previous year's plan.

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