Job Market Challenges

Immigrant women identify finding employment as a key priority in their new lives in Canada. Despite a pressing need to work, many experience significant obstacles in their search for meaningful and secure employment.

• Language barriers and a lack of Canadian experience are common hurdles. But speaking with an accent or holding credentials from another country can also hurt a woman’s chances of finding a good job. 
  
  
• Newly separated from family and other support networks, newcomer women may also struggle with childcare needs. 
  
  
• Despite arriving with education and a hunger to work, many newcomers are faring worse than previous generations of immigrants. 
  
  
• Immigrant women’s failure to find stable employment can have a profound impact on their psychological and physical well being and that of their families. It also has consequences for the rest of Canada, whose future economic well being depends on the continued growth of a labour market largely fuelled by immigrants.

Did you know?

• Women earn 64 cents for every dollar that men earn 
  
  
• 1 in 5 Canadian women live in  poverty 
  
  
• 7 out of 10 part-time employees are women 
  
  
• Women  represent  2/3 of the 250,000 Ontarians earning minimum wage 
  
  
• New  immigrant women earn 20% less than  other Canadian women and 30% less  than men. 
  
  
• Newly-arrived  immigrant women who are university educated are less likely to be employed than  their Canadian-born counterparts: 68.3% versus 82.8% 
  
  
• 56% of recently arrived immigrant women work part-time 
  
  
• In  1980, recent female immigrants were paid 23% less than Canadian-born women with similar education and  experience. By the year 2000, this gap had almost doubled to 45%.

What is ICW doing?

• IWC Front Line Staff in Employment Services work individually with clients to set both short and long-term goals and assist with finding meaningful employment.
  
  
• IWC provides a 6-week, interactive, confidence-building, critical-thinking Orientation to the Labour Market Workshop.
  
  
• IWC recently launched a new Financial Literacy for  Women workshop aimed at giving newcomer  women the tools they need to better control their own financial future.   
  
  
• IWC  programs and workshops include free, professional Childminding Services.  
  
  
• IWC  provides a multitude of other related services. Please see our Programs and Services section for more details.
  

Further Reading:

ACTEW: Environmental Scan of Employment and Training Services  for Women in Canada
ACTEW: Immigrant Women and Employment Factsheet
Hamilton Training Advisory Board
Statistics Canada: Women in Canada- A Gender-based statistical  report
National Women’s Reference Group on Labour Market Issues