Launched: 2022-11-30

A extremely educated workforce is crucial to sustaining our way of life as a rustic, in addition to assembly present and future labour market wants. Canada has a bigger share of the inhabitants with a university or college credential than another nation within the G7. The share with a bachelor’s diploma or increased continues to rise with an inflow of extremely educated immigrants and a rising variety of younger adults finishing levels. Nevertheless, we could also be leaving expertise on the desk with the tutorial {qualifications} of some foreign-educated staff being underused.

Leveraging these credentials is vital as extra of the inhabitants nears retirement age. Furthermore, Canada faces a labour crunch, with excessive employment, record-low unemployment and record-high job vacancies. Capitalizing on our extremely educated inhabitants is vital to making sure that Canada has sufficient educated staff to fill the areas left by retirements.

Academic attainment can also be tied to job safety, and the COVID-19 pandemic forged a renewed mild on this. These with increased ranges of training have been higher positioned to face up to the financial disruptions attributable to the pandemic, due partly to being extra prone to work in industries that have been suited to distant work. In response to the Labour Power Survey, these with a bachelor’s diploma or increased have been much less prone to really feel the preliminary unemployment shocks in April 2020, and their employment price recovered quicker, regaining pre-pandemic ranges by November 2020. The employment charges of these with decrease ranges of training largely didn’t return to pre-pandemic ranges till autumn 2021. Nonetheless, many frontline staff with decrease ranges of training have been essential to holding Canada working through the shutdowns within the first waves of the pandemic, as they labored in areas similar to grocery shops and gasoline stations, as cleaners, and in well being care help.

Utilizing information from the 2021 Census, right now’s launch examines the altering face of training in Canada and the function that training and coaching have performed within the evolution of the Canadian workforce.

Canada has the most important share of faculty and college graduates within the G7 

An informed inhabitants is essential to sustaining Canada’s way of life and tempo of financial development within the coming years. Canada continues to carry out strongly by way of training on the world stage, benefitting from extremely educated immigrants and a rising share of younger adults graduating from a university or college.

In truth, Canada has led the G7 by way of post-secondary graduates since 2006, with 57.5% of the working-age inhabitants (that’s, these aged 25 to 64) having a university or college credential, in line with new outcomes from the 2021 Census.

Canada’s sturdy school system is vital to its excessive worldwide standing. For instance, almost one in 4 Canadians (24.6%) had a university certificates or diploma or related credential as their highest degree of training in 2021, above all different G7 international locations and greater than double the share in america (10.8%).

Canada was in the midst of the pack by way of the share of the inhabitants with a bachelor’s diploma or increased (32.9%), putting fourth within the G7 after the UK (41.3%), america (39.5%) and Japan (34.2%). Canada lagged different international locations within the share with graduate levels, at 9.3% (8.2% with a grasp’s diploma or equal and 1.1% with an earned doctorate), whereas within the different G7 international locations, this share ranged from 13% to 15%.

One in three Canadians now holds a bachelor’s diploma or increased

A rising share of working-age Canadians has accomplished a bachelor’s diploma or increased, a rise pushed each by extremely educated current immigrants and by rising instructional attainment amongst younger adults. Over 6.4 million folks, or roughly one-third of the working-age inhabitants, reported having a bachelor’s diploma or increased in 2021, up 4.3 share factors from 2016, a quicker tempo of improve than reported within the two earlier censuses.

British Columbia (+5.1 share factors) and Ontario (+4.9 share factors) noticed the most important will increase in diploma holders from 2016 to 2021. This was pushed by two elements. First, Ontario and Western Canada welcomed extra of the extremely educated current immigrants than Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Second, British Columbia (+3.3 share factors) and Ontario (+3.1 share factors) led the provinces within the rising share of Canadian-born younger adults (aged 25 to 34), with a bachelor’s diploma or increased, in contrast with the remainder of Canada (+2.7 share factors).

Ladies remained extra probably than males to have a bachelor’s diploma or increased: for instance, 39.7% of Canadian-born younger girls (aged 25 to 34) had a level in 2021, in contrast with 25.7% of Canadian-born younger males. Nevertheless, the share of Canadian-born younger males with a level rose extra shortly than previously. The 5-year improve from 2016 to 2021 within the share of those males with a level (+2.2 share factors) was nearly as giant because the 10-year improve (+2.3 share factors) from 2006 to 2016. Whereas the rise amongst Canadian-born younger girls from 2016 to 2021 (+3.3 share factors) was bigger than that of younger males, it was much like earlier years.

In Quebec, the acceleration in younger males’s completion of a bachelor’s diploma or increased was notably pronounced. In 2021, 23.4% of younger males in Quebec had a bachelor’s diploma or increased, up 2.2 share factors from 2016. This 5-year improve was bigger than the 10-year improve (+1.5 share factors) from 2006 to 2016.

Fewer working-age folks with apprenticeships in key trades fields in 2021 in contrast with 5 years earlier, amid record-high labour demand and retirements

Over two-thirds (70.4%) of apprenticeship certificates in 2021 have been in the important thing fields of building trades (similar to carpenters, electricians and plumbers), mechanic and restore applied sciences (auto mechanics) and precision manufacturing (welders). The whole variety of working-age folks with apprenticeships declined in mechanic and restore applied sciences (-7.8%) and precision manufacturing (-10.0%) from 2016 to 2021 and stayed comparatively degree within the building trades (+0.6%), because the variety of youthful entrants couldn’t change these retiring shortly sufficient. This contrasts sharply with an increase of almost one-fifth (+19.1%) within the variety of working-age individuals who have a bachelor’s diploma or increased and poses a critical problem for industries counting on the expert trades. In 2021 and 2022, the demand for expert trades staff reached report highs. Job vacancies within the occupational class of “trades, transport and tools operators and associated occupations” that required at the least a trades or apprenticeship credential almost doubled from late 2019 to late 2021. Likewise, job vacancies in some associated industries similar to building and fabricated metallic product manufacturing reached report highs in 2022.

This development may be anticipated to proceed over the subsequent decade as child boomers march in direction of retirement. For instance, in 2021, 3 in 10 employed folks (30.2%) with an apprenticeship in mechanic and restore applied sciences or precision manufacturing have been aged 55 or older. Within the building trades, this share was 22.1%, much like the common for all employed folks (23.0%), however with demand for housing remaining excessive, the development sector is nonetheless going through main labour shortages.

The developments within the subject of building differed by province. Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia noticed will increase within the variety of folks with an apprenticeship certificates within the building trades (starting from will increase of 4.6% to 8.3%), whereas the Atlantic provinces, Ontario (-3.8%) and Alberta (-3.5%) skilled decreases.

The variety of potential staff within the trades fields of building trades, mechanic and restore applied sciences, and precision manufacturing has been restricted by the underrepresentation of girls, racialized teams and immigrants. Ladies made up 2.4% of working-age apprenticeship certificates holders in these fields in 2021. Racialized teams as an entire made up 7.1% of working-age apprenticeship certificates holders in these trades, whereas they made up 27.3% of the overall working-age inhabitants. Latin People have been the racialized group with essentially the most illustration in these trades relative to their share of the general inhabitants (0.9% of apprenticeship certificates holders in these trades, in contrast with 1.9% of the working-age inhabitants), whereas Koreans have been the least represented (0.1%, in contrast with 0.7% of the working-age inhabitants). Likewise, immigrants made up 27.7% of the working-age inhabitants, however 10.0% of apprenticeship certificates holders in these three fields.

Immigrants assist elevate training ranges in Canada, however face increased charges of overqualification if they’ve a overseas diploma

Immigrants play a key function in Canada’s excessive share of diploma holders. Leveraging the skills of extremely educated immigrants is vital to sustaining Canada’s way of life and assembly labour market wants because the inhabitants ages. In 2021, immigrants and non-permanent residents accounted for over half of the working-age inhabitants with an earned doctorate (55.8%), a grasp’s diploma (52.2%) or a level in medication, dentistry, veterinary medication or optometry (50.8%), and accounted for 39.1% of these with a bachelor’s diploma.

Immigrants account for a bigger share of the inhabitants in Canada than in another G7 nation, and the variety of current immigrants (from 2016 to 2021) within the 2021 Census, was the best recorded in any Canadian census. As well as, these current immigrants have been extra extremely educated than any earlier group, with almost 6 in 10 (59.4%) holding a bachelor’s diploma or increased. Immigrants who had landed in Canada for the reason that 2016 Census have been answerable for almost half (2.1 share factors) of the 4.3-percentage-point rise from 2016 to 2021 within the share of the working-age inhabitants holding a bachelor’s diploma or increased.

These excessive ranges of training, together with increased charges of Canadian work expertise, have contributed to the labour market outcomes of current immigrants. As famous within the Labour launch, current immigrants in 2021 (who landed through the interval from 2016 to 2021) have been extra prone to be working in industries with above-average hourly wages, in contrast with current immigrants in 2016 (who landed through the interval from 2011 to 2016). Nonetheless, immigrants with overseas credentials (their diploma was obtained exterior Canada) face limitations to utilizing their expertise in Canada. Over one-quarter (25.8%) of all immigrants with a overseas diploma have been overqualified, which is outlined as a level holder working in a job that usually requires a highschool training or much less. This was greater than double the overqualification price amongst Canadian-born diploma holders (10.6%) or immigrants with a Canadian diploma (11.8%). Amongst immigrants with a overseas diploma, overqualification was increased amongst girls (28.3%) than amongst males (23.1%).

The overqualification of immigrants with overseas levels is a longstanding difficulty, noticed constantly for the reason that addition of location of research information to the 2006 Census. It grows ever extra salient because the variety of immigrants with overseas levels will increase. In 2021, nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of immigrants with a bachelor’s diploma or increased had accomplished it exterior Canada.

Even immigrants with overseas levels in high-demand areas similar to registered nursing or medication confronted excessive charges of job mismatch. For instance, 36.5% of immigrants with a overseas bachelor’s diploma or increased in registered nursing labored as registered nurses, or in intently associated occupations similar to nurse practitioners, nursing supervisors or well being care managers, and 41.1% of immigrants with a overseas medical diploma labored as medical doctors. In distinction, among the many inhabitants with a Canadian nursing diploma or medical diploma, roughly 9 in 10 labored as registered nurses (87.4%) or medical doctors (90.1%).

Though the census doesn’t inform us immediately about limitations that immigrants might face to discovering employment of their subject, similar to credential recognition and official language proficiency, outcomes present that, if immigrants with overseas levels had jobs of their subject on the similar price because the Canadian-educated inhabitants, it may improve the potential variety of working-age registered nurses and intently associated occupations by 27,350, and medical doctors by 15,730.

One other group going through excessive charges of job mismatch regardless of being in a high-demand subject have been girls who had studied pc and data sciences. This was the case for each immigrant girls and Canadian-born girls. Among the many inhabitants with a postsecondary credential in pc and data science who labored in 2020 or 2021, lower than one-third (31.5%) of girls labored in science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) occupations in arithmetic, pc and data science, in contrast with half (50.1%) of males. This constituted a job match hole of 18.6 share factors. The job match hole between women and men remained related (starting from 16 to 22 share factors) even after taking credential kind into consideration (beneath bachelor’s, bachelor’s diploma or grasp’s diploma) and whether or not they studied in Canada or exterior Canada. Ladies with pc science credentials have been extra probably than males with these credentials to work in other-than-STEM occupations in enterprise, finance and administration (21.5% for ladies in contrast with 7.7% for males).

If the job match hole between men and women in pc science have been eradicated (controlling for credential kind and placement of research), it could doubtlessly improve the overall variety of working-age folks working in pc science occupations by 26,340.

Extra Canadians maintain levels in well being care in contrast with 5 years earlier, however labour shortages stay

Pushed by each the well being care wants of an growing old inhabitants and the necessity to answer the well being impacts of the pandemic, the variety of folks working in non-management well being occupations grew by 16.8% from 2016 to 2021. Likewise, the variety of working-age folks with a level in well being care rose by nearly one-quarter (+24.1%) in contrast with 2016, to 691,000 in 2021, quicker than the general rise within the variety of working-age folks with a level (+19.1%). This included marked will increase in nursing (+29.7% to 267,000) and dentistry (+23.8% to 31,000) graduates. There have been 9,500 (+9.3%) extra folks with a medical diploma (together with residencies) in 2021 in contrast with 5 years earlier.

Greater than three-quarters (76.2%) of the inhabitants with a well being care diploma who labored in 2020 or 2021 have been working in well being care occupations (82.1% of these with a Canadian well being care diploma and 63.0% of these with a overseas well being care diploma).

Regardless of the current inflow of well being care graduates, the pandemic has put an amazing pressure on Canada’s well being care system and, particularly, on well being care staff on the entrance traces. Hospitals and well being care services throughout Canada stay thinly stretched, with job vacancies for registered nurses reaching a report excessive of over 23,000 by the second quarter of 2022. When Statistics Canada surveyed well being care staff within the fall of 2021, almost one-quarter (24.4%) of nurses reported intending to depart their job or change jobs throughout the subsequent three years, with job stress or burnout being the most typical motive for that alternative.

Variety of diploma holders in pc science rises by over two-fifths

The pandemic noticed an increase within the share of jobs that required particular technical expertise associated to pc science and, likewise, an increase in jobs within the pc programs design and associated companies business, as a bigger portion of labor moved on-line.

The availability of expert staff on this space has likewise been rising. Statistics Canada counted 295,000 pc and data science diploma holders in 2021, up 46.3% or almost 100,000 greater than 5 years earlier. Postsecondary Pupil Info System pointed to a continuation of this development, with college enrolments in arithmetic and pc and data sciences rising by 8.4% from 2019/2020 to 2020/2021.

Nevertheless, will increase weren’t evenly distributed throughout the provinces. British Columbia, which had the most important total development in diploma holders (+24.2%), noticed a 51.6% rise in pc and data science diploma holders from 2016 to 2021. In 8 provinces, the rise was over 40%. Conversely, the smallest positive aspects among the many provinces have been in Alberta (+28.6%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+20.3%).

Over half of Inuit have accomplished highschool

First Nations folks, Métis and Inuit are a few of the youngest populations in Canada, and their present and future instructional paths have vital implications for Canadian society, because the inhabitants of the nation as an entire ages.

First Nations folks, Métis and Inuit face main gaps in highschool and postsecondary completion. As of 2021, almost three-quarters (73.9%) of working-age Indigenous folks had accomplished highschool, and 12.9% had a bachelor’s diploma or increased.

Gaps between the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous inhabitants are narrowing in terms of highschool completion. The share of Métis who had accomplished highschool rose 4.6 share factors from 2016, to 82.0% in 2021, whereas for First Nations folks, the share elevated 5.5 share factors to 69.9%.

For the primary time, in 2021, over half (50.1%) of Inuit aged 25 to 64 had accomplished a highschool diploma or equivalency certificates, up 4.7 share factors from 2016.

In all these instances, these will increase within the share of Indigenous populations with a highschool diploma have been bigger than among the many Canadian-born non-Indigenous inhabitants (+2.0 share factors), 88.9% of whom had accomplished highschool. This group is used for comparability to exclude modifications pushed by the excessive training ranges of current immigrants.

Nevertheless, gaps between the share of the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous inhabitants finishing a bachelor’s diploma or increased are widening. Though the share of Indigenous folks with a bachelor’s diploma or increased rose by 1.9 share factors (to 12.9%) in 2021, this was lower than the rise among the many Canadian-born non-Indigenous inhabitants (+2.9 share factors, to 27.8%). This development held true amongst Métis (+2.5 share factors, to 15.7%), First Nations folks (+1.6 share factors, to 11.3%) and Inuit (+0.9 share factors, to 6.2%). That is vital, since training on the bachelor degree and above is related to higher-paying jobs, and limitations to increased training confronted by Indigenous folks contribute to socioeconomic disadvantages.

Training pays and protects through the pandemic

It has lengthy held true that individuals with postsecondary credentials typically have increased employment charges and earnings than these with out them, and thus the additional one goes in class, the larger one’s financial safety. This sample turned extra pronounced through the pandemic, as folks with decrease ranges of training confronted larger declines in employment and bigger earnings losses.

Staff with a bachelor’s diploma or increased had larger job safety through the pandemic, partly as a result of they have been extra prone to be in “triple-protected” jobs. Triple protected jobs are everlasting (for an indefinite size of time) slightly than time period or informal positions, they can not simply be automated and they’re extra pandemic-resilient, being both appropriate for distant work, appropriate with bodily distancing or deemed important by authorities. Greater than 7 in 10 staff with a credential above the bachelor degree, and greater than 6 in 10 with a bachelor’s diploma have been in triple-protected jobs, in contrast with fewer than 4 in 10 of these with another degree of training.

This impact may very well be seen in modifications within the employment price over time. The employment price elevated from Might 2016 to Might 2021 for these with a credential above the bachelor degree. For instance, males with a grasp’s diploma noticed their employment price rise 1.6 share factors to 86.9%, whereas for ladies, it rose 1.3 share factors to 81.2%. Employment fell, albeit barely, for these with a bachelor’s diploma (for males, -0.8 share factors to 85.3%; for ladies, -1.0 share factors to 79.0%).

In distinction, these with training beneath the bachelor degree principally noticed bigger decreases (except males within the trades). For instance, amongst these with highschool as their highest degree of training, the employment price fell by 5.4 share factors for ladies (to 59.1%) and 4.9 share factors for males (to 72.0%). This alteration widened current labour market disparities between folks with completely different ranges of training.

Likewise, the earnings of staff with a bachelor’s diploma or increased rose from 2019 to 2020, through the pandemic, whereas earnings fell for staff with training beneath the bachelor degree (see Be aware to readers for particulars on ideas). For instance, the common earnings of working-age folks with a bachelor’s diploma rose by $1,600 (reaching $69,900), whereas the common earnings of these with highschool as their highest degree of training declined by $2,040 (to $42,960). Nevertheless, authorities transfers such because the Canada Emergency Response Profit (CERB) largely offset earnings losses for many of those teams with training beneath the bachelor degree. That is according to the findings of the 2021 Census launch on revenue information.

The one exception to this was males with apprenticeship certificates. This group had bigger earnings losses than both girls or males at another degree of training, with a median decline of $4,100 (from $69,700 to $65,600) from 2019 to 2020. Even after will increase in employment insurance coverage and COVID-19 emergency and restoration advantages in 2020 are taken into consideration, their shortfall relative to 2019 was nonetheless $1,300. One motive for this distinction was that males with apprenticeships had comparatively excessive common earnings (as seen above, near $70,000 in 2019), which might not be totally changed by the CERB and associated advantages.

Regardless of this, the employment of males with apprenticeship certificates recovered comparatively shortly from the pandemic in contrast with that of different teams with training beneath the bachelor degree. By Might 2021, their employment price was barely increased than it had been in Might 2016. This was partly as a result of 2016 marked a low level for the employment of tradespeople within the wake of sharply decrease oil costs, but it surely was additionally as a result of labour demand in industries related to the trades quickly recovered in 2021, with excessive job vacancies in building and manufacturing by the second quarter of that 12 months.

In distinction, girls with apprenticeship certificates skilled the most important drops in employment charges from 2016 to 2021 (-7.7 share factors). This distinction was largely associated to subject of research. Almost half (48.0%) of working-age girls with an apprenticeship certificates had studied culinary, leisure, and private companies, which incorporates hairdressing and cooking. Staff in these areas have been notably onerous hit by the pandemic, since hair salons and eating places have been among the many first companies closed through the shutdowns. For instance, over 70% of girls with an apprenticeship in hairstyling acquired the CERB. Nevertheless, COVID-19 emergency and restoration advantages and employment insurance coverage greater than offset their earnings losses, on common, as a result of their pre-pandemic earnings ($32,720 on common) have been significantly decrease than these of males with apprenticeship certificates.

Training has performed a key function in Canada’s society and economic system all through the foremost shifts over the previous 5 years, from the pre-pandemic increase to the pandemic-era closures to the present tight labour market. It’s going to proceed to have main implications for our skill to take care of Canada’s prosperity and way of life and to fulfill labour market wants, because the child increase era retires.

Wanting forward

An upcoming analytical article will present extra element on instructional attainment and related occupations of disaggregated racialized teams, together with particulars on variations by era standing, immigrant standing, interval of immigration, and native land.

A future analytical article will present element on how the impacts of the pandemic on revenue differed by degree of training.

Just lately launched information on enrolments at and graduations from Canadian public postsecondary establishments can forged extra mild on the impacts of the pandemic on postsecondary research.

Contact info

For extra info, or to investigate concerning the ideas, strategies or information high quality of this launch, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; [email protected]) or Media Relations ([email protected]).