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TL;DR

On August 26, Statistics Canada released four studies highlighting ongoing economic gaps for newcomers, immigrant families, and people who came to Canada as children.

These studies look at household wealth, skilled trades certification, child-care participation, and long-term youth disengagement, sharing findings about earnings, jobs, and access.

Over one in six recent immigrant families were in the lowest groups for both income and wealth. The study defined recent immigrants as families who have been in Canada for up to nine years and established immigrants as those who have been here for at least ten years.

Recent immigrant families were mostly found at the lower end of the income and wealth scale and were less likely to reach the top. The wealth gap between them and Canadian-born families grew at higher income levels, even after researchers accounted for factors such as homeownership and pension coverage.

Established immigrant families had similar or better economic well-being compared to Canadian-born families. They owned more home equity in all wealth groups, but had less pension wealth.

These findings add financial context to earlier Statistics Canada research, which showed that only about 20% of immigrants admitted from 2010 to 2020 worked in their intended job by 2021. Those who did earned a median of $65,600, while those who did not earned $44,000.

People who came to Canada before age 18 still had certification rates 3 to 5 percentage points lower than those of Canadian-born people. This gap remained even after Statistics Canada considered factors such as demographics, employment status, earnings, and program details.

Male journeypersons who immigrated as children earned 7% to 10% less before, during, and after certification. Researchers did not find a consistent earnings gap for women after adjustments.

Income and credits earned before registering for an apprenticeship explained some of the certification gap. Having credits before registering made certification 13 percentage points more likely, while apprentices who earned less than $15,000 during their registration year were 17 points less likely to certify than those earning $15,000 to $29,999.

These findings come as Ottawa is funding paid placements and other supports for skilled trades. These are separate from programs that recognize qualifications earned outside Canada.

According to the child-care study, 47% of children in low-income families received regular care from someone other than a parent, compared to 64% of children overall. Participation rates were 56% for racialized families and 59% for Indigenous families.

Families who had trouble finding child care were more likely to delay going back to work or to cut their hours. They also depended more on evening and weekend care.

Canada’s federal child-care agreements committed provinces and territories to creating more than 250,000 regulated spaces. Federal progress data recorded 168,226 new spaces by March 31, 2025, although figures from several jurisdictions remained unavailable or unconfirmed.

The release also introduced the measure called “not in employment, education or training, excluding short transitions” (NEETEST). It looks at full calendar years and does not count caregiving as disengagement.

Five years after experiencing NEETEST in 2017, men earned $37,800 less than those who did not. For women, the gap was $31,200. They were also less likely to have postsecondary education.

This measure comes as about 914,000 Canadians aged 15 to 29 were not working, studying, or training in 2025, according to Employment and Social Development Canada.

These studies do not change benefit eligibility, immigration status or apprenticeship rules. They offer benchmarks for decisions that newcomers may already face.

If you are starting a trade, check with your provincial apprenticeship authority to see if your previous training can count as pre-registration credit.

When comparing jobs, families should look at available child-care hours as well as cost, since evening and weekend coverage is still uneven. For household finances, keep track of pension savings separately from home equity, as immigrant families may have different experiences in each area.