14.5 lakh jobs in Canada, Big opportunity for Indians
Ottawa: In the next three years, Canada is preparing to hire 1.45 million foreigners. Recently, Canada’s Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said that the lack of labor force in the country has caused a lot of damage to the economy. Canada needs more people to overcome this. To meet this need, Canada plans to provide jobs to 14.5 lakh immigrants in the country in the next three years under the Immigration Level Plan 2023-25.
According to the report of business consulting firm RSM Canada, there are three reasons for the decrease in labor force in the country-
People leaving work due to COVID-19 pandemic
Country’s declining fertility rate
ageing population
People leaving work after the pandemic.
In June-July 2022, Canada faced the 7th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, 11.2% of hospital staff and nurses also became ill due to infection. This led to a shortage of workers and the closure of the emergency ward of many hospitals.
Since March this year, 2 lakh people have left their jobs.
At the same time, some people lost their jobs during the epidemic. In July, 30,000 people left the education, healthcare and social service sectors and 43,000 in June. In the last one year, Canada’s economy has lost more than Rs 1 lakh crore due to labor shortage.
Such people have now adopted new methods of self-employment and are now dependent on them. Now companies need a new labour force to get work done again, but old employees are not coming back to work.
Immigration Minister Fraser has said that by 2025, 60% of immigrants in the economic migrant category in Canada will be allowed. This means these immigrants will also get permanent residency cards in Canada.
Declining fertility rates and ageing population
One of the reasons for the shortage of laborers in Canada is the constantly falling fertility rate and the aging population. Canada’s fertility rate currently stands at 1.4 children per woman. By 2030, a quarter of Canada’s population, or about nine million people, will reach retirement age.
What is the Canadian government’s New Immigration Levels Plan?
Immigration Minister Shaun Fraser says Canada’s healthcare, agriculture-fisheries and transport sectors are completely dependent on immigrants. There are about 10 lakh job vacancies. Immigrants coming from abroad to work in Canada will also get permanent residency in the country for their economic contribution. For this, the Canadian government has been running different programs for many years. Entry to the new immigration levels plan will also be under this program.
The entry of these new immigrants into the country and selection for the job will be done only under the already existing Express Entry and Provincial Nominee Program i.e. PNP programs. Last year, about 56% of immigrants came to Canada through these programs.
Under the New Immigration Levels Plan, the Canadian government plans to increase the express entry target to 82,880 in 2023, 1,09,020 in 2024 and 1,14,000 immigrants in Canada in 2025. Similarly, under the PNP i.e. Provincial Nominee Program, 1,05,500 immigrants will be given jobs in 2023, 1,10,000 in 2024, 1,17,500 immigrants in 2025.
