How to Use Labour Market Information for Recent Immigrants

Over the next 10 years, the growth of Canada’s labour force is expected to slow significantly, due to high retirement and low fertility rates. The Labour Market Information Council (LMiC) published a report in 2019, which examined labour market trends both in general and with special focus on labour market information for recent immigrants.LMIC’s mandate is to provide the information needed to maintain a reliable supply of qualified workers ready for Canada’s labour market. Along with local employers and job seekers, newcomers to Canada access the information to find a place they want to settle. That’s why labour market information for recent immigrants is an important component of their studies.

If you hope to attract new talent to your company or region (especially if it’s remote and may be difficult to attract newcomers to), consider publishing Labour Market Information (LMI) data. Sharing your LMI across your digital spaces eases the minds of searching users who want to know what’s in store for them if they relocate to your community.

Here’s a summary of what kinds of things may be useful to include in your job postings so job seekers can find your information easily. Help them get in touch by providing company websites, candidate email outreach and social media messages.

Report: Settling Down: Recent Immigrants and Labour Market Information

Here are some key findings from the LMiC report, Settling Down: Recent Immigrants and Labour Market Information.

“60% of recent immigrants use labour market information (LMI) and 90% say it is impactful.

Wages and the cost of living most sought after LMI.

Top LMI challenges are lack of insight about the future (30%) and lack of relevant information (27%).

Top barriers to employment reported by unemployed recent immigrants are a:

lack of Canadian work experience (39%),

lack of professional contacts (21%) and,

lack of Canadian education (21%).” ¹

Easy access to labour market information for eastern Ontario draws people looking to live and work in Canada to the area. They want to know what the job market is and how they can be successful here in a way that’s easy to find and understand. Wage and cost of living information provided is win-win for everyone as jobs get filled with people who want to work in eastern Ontario.

In eastern Ontario, action is being taken to attract and connect employers and recent immigrant job seekers to the area.

This means making sure job seekers know where the jobs are, how much they'll pay and if they’re a good fit for both their qualifications and work/life needs.

To get moving on this important initiative a subcommittee on immigration was formed that met for the first time on October 8. Here stakeholders across the eastern Ontario region and even adjacent neighbouring partners joined in to collaborate. Here’s what we’re working on right now to create a win win situation for employers and jobseekers:

Connecting employers with best fit talent to fill their available jobs quickly.
Giving job seekers the training they need to get good paying work where they want to live, in eastern Ontario.

3 Ways LMI for Recent Immigrants Fulfills Job Seeker Needs in the Eastern Ontario Region

Ontario East is taking decisive action based on the LMiC report findings by relaunching the Eastern Ontario Workforce Development project (EOWD). Here’s how we’re helping employers connect with the new immigrant workforce:

Using the LinkedIn Recruiter tool, employers can post jobs and receive free recruitment help with workforce recruitment in the target sectors of Advanced Manufacturing, Digital Technology and Infrastructure & Construction. It’s a talent bank of LinkedIn job seekers with manufacturing talent willing to relocate to eastern Ontario (also maintained by the EOWD team).
Ontario East is licensed to use LinkedIn Talent Insights) to help companies see what their employment trends have been. Also, employers can see where in the world job seekers are located with the skills they need and which post-secondary institutions have training programs to teach those skills.
Supporting the effort to understand immigrant needs in the area like how the region could benefit from an Ontario immigration strategy with a focus on smaller communities.

Ontario East will continue to help build the talent pool of new Canadians looking to work here. We recognize the unique needs of immigrant job seekers. That’s why we share labour market information for recent immigrants digitally so new Canadians can find relevant information. That way they can make informed decisions about where to live and work in the eastern Ontario region.

Help Newcomers to Canada Get the Training They Need Now

Newcomers to Canada can develop new skills and get connected to employers like you.

For more information about training programs available to all job seekers in the eastern Ontario region, download and share the upskilling and reskilling infographic with job seekers and incumbent employees now.