International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
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industries which are enjoying global booms, such as oil and other natural resources,
are the largest, both in terms of level and growth. Figure 11.2 provides an illustration
of the level of regional variation in industry structure. In Newfoundland, mentioned
above, mining and oil and gas extraction comprised 26.7 per cent of provincial GDP
in 2011, compared to 4.5 per cent for Canada and 19.2 per cent for Alberta, the
province with the next highest share of its GDP comprised of output from mining
and oil and gas extraction. This is only meant to foreshadow an important theme of
this report, that provincial input and even control of the composition and level of
immigration has proven to be advantageous in Canada, due to the diverse labour
market needs of different regions.
Figure 11.2: Share of GDP using 2002 chained dollars for selected industries by North
American Industry Classification System, Canada and selected provinces, 2011
80.0
70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Canada Newfoundland
and Labrador
Source: CANSIM Tables 379-0025 and 379-0027.
Ontario Alberta
Health care and social assistance Public administration Professional, scientific and technical services
Construction Finance and insurance, real estate and renting and leasing and management of companies and enterprises
Manufacturing Mining and oil and gas extraction
It is also important to recognize that Canada’s workforce is aging. While the
proportion of the population that is working age (aged 15 to 64) has held constant at
68 to 69 per cent between 1981 and 2011, the median age has increased from 30.6
to 39.9 years over the same time period. Furthermore, population projections given
in Table 11.1 show that by 2031, the percentage of the population aged 15 to 64 will
decline to between 62 and 61 per cent, given reasonable assumptions of a fertility rate
between 1.5 and 1.7 births per woman and national effective immigration between
240,000 and 252,000 persons from 2011 to 2014, and between 0.60 and 0.75 per
cent of the population after 2014. This does not necessarily imply that the labour
force decrease will be proportional to the decrease in the proportion of population
that is working age; it may be offset by a higher labour force participation rate.
Nevertheless, this does underscore the pressures an ageing population is placing on
Canada, and the necessity of a flexible immigration system.