Big Plans for Economic Growth in Canada! 

Canada is currently in a unique period where there is a labour shortage alongside nearly one million job vacancies. Both are driving factors in the country’s growing immigration targets.

You may have seen that the Government of Canada has announced it is setting targets in the new levels plan of 465,000 permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024 and 500,000 in 2025. Most of those new arrivals will be what are known as economic immigrants, who will be expected to fill some of the roughly one million jobs that are currently sitting empty across various sectors of the economy.

These critical labour market shortages are affecting many businesses and workers across the country and we can see this across Ontario which reported the country’s largest decrease in employment in the retail trade sector. This marks the second month in a row of a decrease in payroll employees in retail trade professions. However, the overall current rate of employment in retail trade is still six percent higher than it was in May 2021. 

Fun Fact! Immigration accounts for almost 100% of Canada’s labour force growth, and, by 2032, it’s projected to account for 100% of Canada’s population growth. 

Furthermore, Canada’s aging population means that the worker-to-retiree ratio is expected to shift from 7 to 1 50 years ago to 2 to 1 by 2035.


Another Fun Fact! During the 2021 Census, nearly 1 in 4 people counted were or had been a landed immigrant or permanent resident in Canada, the highest proportion since Confederation and the largest proportion among G7 countries.


I myself have experience assisting immigrants with their applications and worked directly with the government to understand the process. Setting a priority for skilled workers and experienced people who can fill these vacancies across the country is a must. But with these high targets, will we have enough housing for them? That is another blog… 

Read more on the Government’s plan to grow the economy here.