For the 4th consecutive year, we are conducting a survey of the community of professionals who arrived in Canada in the last 10 years.
The intention of this informal survey, based on the voluntary participation of those interested in the topic, is to share a little more of the reality about how the process of preparation and adaptation to the new country has been and how the local labor market has been perceived.
If you are interested in participating in this year’s survey and have not yet participated, just go to: https://forms.gle/T45XT2Pii6Zdx1FL8
Below I share some of the data we found in the survey conducted in 2020 with the responses of those professionals who were already in the country, totaling more than 600 participants that year and approximately 2,000 since the beginning of this series of surveys.
The first question in the 2020 survey was, when did you arrive in Canada?
37.65% of respondents arrived in 2019 while 23.92% had arrived in 2020 and another 21.18% in 2018, thus demonstrating that more than 80% of participants arrived in the last 3 years.
In the second question, our idea was to figure out the timeline for planning, so we asked: how long did it take for your planning to move/immigrate to Canada?
The chart below illustrates well the division of terms taken for planning, where most took between 1 and 2 years.
While the third one focused on the location or planned destination showed us the majority of participants are located or will relocate to British Columbia.
Question number 4 focuses on the area of professional practice, see the data below:
Unsurprisingly, the area with the highest volume of newcomers was the IT Information Technology area, with practically 1 ⁄ 4 of the respondents. exact Sciences.
In the fifth question, the objective was to identify the experience of the participants
As we can see in the chart above, more than 1 ⁄ 3 two professionals are highly experienced with 10 to 20 years of professional experience, while another 30% have between 5 and 10 years of experience in the labor market before arriving in Canada.
In the following questions, the objective was to measure what is the expectation of employability before arriving in Canada and what was the reality found.
In this first graph, we can see what the expectation of employability was before arriving in the country. 43% of participants expected to get their 1st job (regardless of area) between 1 and 3 months after arriving in Canada.
When compared to the reality faced, we realize that after arrival, 29% got a job in less than a month while only 22% thought they would get it in such a period and 25% got it between 1 and 3 months.
However, when we analyze this issue related to more qualified vacancies and especially the employability in each person’s specialty area, we realize that the deadlines are usually much longer:
The considerable majority of 29% has not yet managed to get a place in their area of expertise, while 17.6% only got between 12 and 24 months.
Next comes the most revealing question from this survey that measures satisfaction with the Canadian labor market:
At this point, it is highlighted that only 34% are satisfied, while 35.7% are not and 19.2% still do not have a job or at least do not consider that their current performance is equivalent to the type of work they had in their country.
To conclude the survey, we asked what is the point of greatest satisfaction in relation to Canada.
The standout with 51.1% of respondents is no surprise and was security. A really decisive factor in decision-making is to seek a new destination to have a better quality of life and tranquility for the whole family.
In the penultimate question, we asked what was the biggest challenge for a newcomer to the country and the most outstanding answer with 25.8% was career adaptation and development, accompanied by the validation and enhancement of their knowledge.
Lastly, due to the pandemic, we asked how your professional life has been impacted. It is worth remembering that this research was carried out in the last quarter of 2020 when vaccination had not yet started in Canada and we had a scenario full of uncertainties. 20.5% of respondents were impacted with remote work while 14.4% lost their job while 13.5% had their workday and hours reduced.
In conclusion, once again, the survey demonstrates some very interesting points when we verify that in general terms, after planning for an average of 1 to 2 years hoping to find a job opening between 1 and 3 months, most people end up finding their first job vacancy in the first month. However, when we consider a vacancy in the area of expertise, the scenario is more cautious and a large part takes 1 to 2 years to resume and a relevant percentage has not yet managed to be fully replaced in their area.
Regarding the satisfaction of the job market as a whole, we found that there is a certain balance between satisfied and dissatisfied with the market, with approximately 1 ⁄ 3 for each option and the other 1 ⁄ 3 has not yet found a job.
However, a fundamental point that we were able to assess by modifying some response patterns is that the volume of satisfaction varies a lot according to the term of professionals in the country.
In other words, although in a generic representation the volume of dissatisfaction is high, it demonstrates a very strong correlation with the length of experience and living in Canada.
When we only consider the responses from professionals who have been in the country for less than 2 years, the scenario is very similar to the overall volume, after all, as mentioned at the beginning of this text, most respondents arrived in the last 3 years. However, if we make an analysis considering only professionals who have been in the country for more than 2 years, the numbers are inverted with 60% of respondents satisfied and 40% dissatisfied or without a job in the area.
In other words, the longer a professional has been in the local market, the greater his satisfaction with the market is usually due to a series of factors based on our local observation:
Adaptation, networking, local knowledge, visa status (work permit or Permanent Residence that is usually obtained during this period)
In addition, professionals who unfortunately did not adapt to the country or for some other reason had to return to their country of origin usually do so in this period of the first 2 years, thus reducing the volume of dissatisfied professionals who remain in the country for a longer period.
As I always like to say, Canada is an excellent country, but far from perfection, after all, perfection doesn’t exist. It is essential that we always have well-balanced expectations and that we can prepare ourselves very well for what we are going to face after all the journey is usually arduous, but I can confidently say that for most people it is usually very well rewarded with quality of life and stability in the medium long term. I hope that this content and also the other articles on www.suacarreira.ca/blog can help you in your preparation and also in your Canadian trajectory.