Temporary Foreign Workers and Durham’s Labour Market: What the Data Shows
Temporary Foreign Workers and the Local Labour Market
Temporary foreign workers have been coming to Canada for about 60 years. Simply put, foreign workers are people who come to live and work in Canada for a defined time, such as farm workers.
The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) recruits people exclusively to ease short-term labour shortages.
Recently, concerns have been raised about the impact this program has on the labour market, particularly its effect on the local labour market. Not all the data is available at the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) level, but up-to-date data can be located in this blog.
Temporary foreign workers include work permit holders, study permit holders and asylum claimants who are engaged in work activity in Canada
- Temporary foreign workers are non-permanent residents with employment income in Canada who may hold permits for work, study or other purposes.
- Work permit holders fall under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) and the International Mobility Program (IMP). Some IMP permits are not for work purposes.
- Not all work permit holders worked in Canada each year. About 87% of TFWP permit holders and 69% of IMP permit holders for work purposes had earnings in 2021.
- In 2021, 58% of non-permanent residents holding both work and study permits were employed, while 34% of those having only study permits were employed.
- Holders of permits for non-work purposes accounted for 42% of temporary foreign workers in 2021, with the majority being international students.
- Businesses are required to complete a Labour Market Impact Assessment ,but the Durham Workforce Authority may not be contacted to provide data to the application.
Youth Unemployment, Oshawa CMA
According to Statistics Canada, the normal rate for youth unemployment should be 2.5 times the total unemployment rate for individuals 15 years and older. The youth unemployment rate in the Oshawa CMA has decreased year-over-year. The total unemployment rate in July was 9.8 percent, meaning the youth unemployment rate should be 24.5 percent. According to the chart below, the youth unemployment rate is 17.8 percent.
Immigrant Unemployment by Economic Region
Immigrant unemployment is available by Economic Region monthly rather than by the CMA. This chart shows the total population unemployment at 6.9 percent for July 2025 and the unemployment rates for immigrants who have been landed 5 years or less are significantly higher.
| Immigrant Unemployment Rate by Toronto Economic Region (Percentages) | |||||||||||||
| 15 years and over | |||||||||||||
| Immigrant status | 24-Jul | 24-Aug | 24-Sep | 24-Oct | 24-Nov | 24-Dec | 25-Jan | 25-Feb | 25-Mar | 25-Apr | 25-May | 25-Jun | 25-Jul |
| Total population | 6.4 | 6.8 | 6.7 | 6.5 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.6 | 6.6 | 6.9 | 6.9 | 7 | 6.8 | 6.9 |
| Landed immigrants | 7.5 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 7.4 | 7.3 | 7.6 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 7.6 | 7.8 |
| Immigrants, landed 5 or less years earlier | 12.5 | 12.2 | 11.7 | 10.8 | 10.2 | 9.6 | 10.3 | 10.3 | 10.9 | 10.6 | 11.1 | 10.9 | 11.2 |
| Immigrants, landed more than 5 to 10 years earlier | 8.6 | 9.5 | 9.4 | 8.9 | 8.3 | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 8.6 | 8.9 | 8.9 | 8.6 |
| Immigrants, landed more than 10 years earlier | 5.7 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 6.4 | 6.6 |
| Born in Canada | 5.6 | 5.9 | 5.9 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0471-01
Businesses Using the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
This chart illustrates which provinces and sectors utilize the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The highlighted sectors using it most are:
- Agriculture
- Mining
- Arts and Recreation
- Accommodation and Food Service
The provinces with the highest use of the program are:
- Newfoundland and Lab
- Nova Scotia
- Quebec
- Ontario
| Business hired workers through TFWP in the last 12 months, second quarter of 2023 | ||||||||||||||
| Geography | Canada | NL | PEI | NS | NB | QC | ON | MB | SK | AB | BC | YT | NWT | NU |
| North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), all industries | 5.4A | 2.3A | 4.5A | 5.0A | 3.8A | 7.3A | 4.1A | 5.5A | 4.6A | 5.0A | 6.8A | 6.9A | 6.5A | 1.9A |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting [11] | 14.8A | 2.5A | 8.9B | 9.8C | 4.4A | 29.7C | 17.5B | 2.7A | 1.6A | 5.6B | 13.4B | 0.0A | X | 0.0A |
| Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction [21] | 1.1A | 16.8D | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 3.8B | 1.3A | 1.6A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 2.6A | 0.0A | 16.1E | 0.0A |
| Construction [23] | 5.1A | 3.6B | 2.2A | 2.5A | 2.2A | 0.9A | 8.2C | 0.6A | 2.3A | 7.1C | 7.3B | 3.7B | 0.0A | 8.4C |
| Manufacturing [31-33] | 9.6A | 1.6A | 12.2C | 5.0A | 14.4C | 10.7B | 6.0B | 2.7A | 9.0C | 7.5B | 18.8D | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Wholesale trade [41] | 2.8A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 5.9B | 0.9A | 2.6A | 3.5A | 0.0A | 1.3A | 3.3B | 1.4A | F | F | 0.0A |
| Retail trade [44-45] | 6.1A | 0.1A | 5.0B | 0.0A | 7.0B | 12.7C | 0.0A | 16.4C | 14.1C | 9.2C | 6.4B | 12.2C | 2.6A | 0.0A |
| Transportation and warehousing [48-49] | 1.4A | 0.0A | 6.5C | 0.7A | 1.2A | 4.2B | 0.0A | 3.1A | 0.7A | 2.2A | 0.8A | 10.3D | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Information and cultural industries [51] | 3.2A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 2.8A | 5.2B | 0.2A | 0.0A | 1.4A | 0.1A | 9.7C | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Finance and insurance [52] | 1.3A | 0.0A | 6.4C | 0.0A | 1.6A | 2.6B | 0.4A | 1.8A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 3.4A | 0.0A | 2.6A | 13.7D |
| Real estate and rental and leasing [53] | 3.5A | 1.7A | 0.0A | 5.4C | 1.0A | 0.6A | 6.2C | 3.3B | 9.0C | 0.1A | 1.1A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Professional, scientific and technical services [54] | 4.1A | 1.1A | 0.3A | 8.3B | 0.0A | 7.9B | 4.7B | 1.3A | 3.6B | 2.4A | 0.6A | 1.3A | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services [56] | 5.1A | 4.4B | 5.3A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 13.2C | 2.6A | 1.6A | 0.3A | 3.3A | 6.0B | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Health care and social assistance [62] | 2.8A | 0.0A | 3.3A | 2.0A | 1.7A | 2.1A | 0.1A | 6.8B | 4.7B | 2.8A | 9.0C | 6.1B | F | 3.0A |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation [71] | 1.9A | 0.0A | 1.3A | 0.0A | 0.9A | 2.8A | 0.7A | 1.3A | 1.6A | 2.5A | 2.5B | 9.2B | 0.0A | 0.0A |
| Accommodation and food services [72] | 13.3A | 14.6C | 8.0B | 29.7B | 15.3B | 11.6B | 8.2B | 19.2C | 14.7C | 19.5C | 19.6C | 17.9D | 24.6E | 0.0A |
| Other services (except public administration) [81] | 5.4A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 0.0A | 5.0B | 7.6C | 6.6B | 1.2A | 0.8A | 7.2B | 0.0A | 6.9C | 0.0A |
Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0678-01
This chart shows the size of businesses that use the program. Most businesses using it are larger, with over 100 employees.
In response to growing concerns about the worker program, the DWA will track their impacts on Durham’s clusters and economic sectors as data becomes available.
About the DWA:
The DWA creates an annual plan supplying helpful information for community planning. Next month, the DWA will release its annual Labour Market Plan (LMP).
The plan focuses on the following:
- Durham Region demographics change, migration trends in and out, educational attainment of residents, and changes in employers in the local area by employee size and 3-digit NAICs.
- Enhanced Jobs First Durham (JFD) data extracted from the DWA’s boutique job board with hyper-local information.
- An update on Employment Ontario data.
The DWA provides just-in-time custom labour market information and often conducts custom fee-for-service research. If you are interested in local data, please don’t hesitate to contact the DWA.
The Province of Ontario partially funds the DWA to supply Labour Market Information (LMI) to the Region of Durham.