April 8, 2026 By Ghada Alsharif Immigration and Work Reporter Toronto Star

Canadian newcomers are much more likely than Canadian-born workers to be stuck in jobs below their qualifications, according to new Statistics Canada data published Tuesday.

Nearly one-third (32 per cent) of recent immigrants — those admitted as permanent residents within the past five years — age 25 to 54 with postsecondary education reported being overqualified for their jobs, compared with 19 per cent of Canadian-born workers of the same age, according to

Labour Force Survey data collected in September 2024 and September 2025.

Nearly 21 per cent of newcomers with postsecondary credentials were also more likely to be in a job that was not related to their field of study compared with 15 per cent of Canadian-born individuals.

The gap persists even among workers with the same level of education: 33 per cent of newcomers with a degree above a bachelor’s reported being overqualified, compared with nearly 20 per cent of Canadian-born workers with the same qualifications.

There were signs of improvement on the employment front in a separate Statistics Canada study published Tuesday. The survey, covering 2019 to 2024, reported that 42 per cent of recent immigrants secured a job or started a business within three months of arrival, up from 31 per cent in earlier cohorts who had arrived 10 to 15 years earlier.

The findings come as Ottawa plans to drastically scale back immigration levels over the next three years while focusing on “attracting and retaining highly skilled immigrants.”

The new data raises questions about how effectively Canada is using the talent that is already here, experts say.

“Canada’s objective is to attract and retain the most qualified, educated and skilled immigrants, but in the labour market they’re not getting the jobs they’re trained for,” said Marshia Akbar, research lead on labour migration at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“The policy objective and the reality are not matching — there’s a big gap.”

As new entrants to the Canadian labour market, recent immigrants often struggle to find work that matches their education, training and skills — part of this is the result of discrimination in the labour market and a lack of recognition of credentials.

Immigrants are selected for permanent residence at the federal level based on criteria including education and experience, but once they arrive those same qualifications can go unrecognized at the provincial level.

The result is a system that still underutilizes skilled immigrants, leaving many in precarious work — despite critical labour shortages and an aging population — and is estimated to cost Canada $50 billion in lost GDP each year.

Newcomers with degrees from countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — which includes Australia, France, Germany and the U.S. — were far less likely to face job mismatch than those educated elsewhere.

More than 27 per cent of recent immigrants with non-OECD bachelor degrees or higher were in low-skill jobs compared with 14 per cent of those with OECD degrees, according to the data.

When newcomers experience “de-skilling” they end up turning to survival jobs and “that’s when we see the mismatch between levels of education and occupation,” Akbar said.

The second Statistics Canada study noted that labour-market outcomes for newcomers have gotten better in 2019-2024, but challenges remain. Thirty-one per cent of newcomers still reported difficulties finding their first job, often due to a lack of Canadian experience, connections or recognition of foreign credentials.

Underutilizing talent of highly skilled and educated newcomers is “a direct loss to our GDP,” said Katherine Scott, a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“We’re losing highly skilled talent when they decide they can’t make a go of it in Canada and they go home or they go to another country.”

Canada has long struggled to retain in-demand, highly skilled workers. A November report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada, titled “The Leaky Bucket 2025,” found that one in five immigrants are leaving Canada within 25 years of landing and highly educated immigrants are leaving faster than those with lower education levels.