The Labour Market Performance of Immigrant and Canadian-born Workers by Age Groups

Abstract

With data from the 2011 National Household Survey, this study uses wages and employment status as labour market outcomes to examine the relative economic performances of young, middle-aged and older native-born Canadians and immigrants. Males and females are studied separately. The aim is to identify the elements that can influence individuals’ labour market behaviour, as well as any differences in labour market outcomes between immigrants and Canadian-born citizens. Demographic, geographic, education, language ability, job-related and immigration characteristics are taken into account in the models. The results show that immigrants earn less than Canadian-born citizens among all age groups, and that this earnings gap is larger for middle-aged workers than for the other two age groups. Also, young and middle-aged immigrants are less likely to be employed than Canadian-born citizens, while the opposite is true for older workers. Finally, the results of a Oaxaca decomposition indicate that a higher proportion of the wage differentials between immigrants and Canadian-born citizens is explained for the middle-aged group than for the other age groups.