Trudeau’s Million New Jobs? Thank Immigrants For That
David Campbell writes a blog about economic development in Atlantic Canada called It’s The Economy, Stupid.
There have been over a million net new jobs created since the Liberals came to power.
But the Tweets and advertisements do not tell the whole story. Only 20 per cent of that employment growth was from people born in Canada. The rest of the jobs were filled by immigrants, non-permanent residents (and a fraction from Canadians born outside Canada). That is approximately 800,000 net new jobs filled by immigrants and non-permanent residents since Trudeau took office.
Immigrant employment didn’t come at the expense of those born in Canada. The unemployment rate among those born in Canada has been steadily on the decline from 6.8 percent in August 2015 to only 5.5 percent in August 2019.
There are barely enough young people born in Canada right now (and others not in the labour market) to offset those leaving the labour market by retirement – so if you want to grow the labour market you will need immigration. In provinces like New Brunswick there are not enough – the born in Canada workforce here is in decline and has been for a number of years.
So the next time you hear the politicians talking about a million new jobs, remind yourself of where the vast majority of those new workers are coming from.
Without immigration, our labour market would stall and our economy would sputter.
Huddle publishes commentaries from groups and individuals on important business issues facing the Maritimes. These commentaries do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Huddle. To submit a commentary for consideration, contact editor Mark Leger: [email protected].