A Poor Match between Jobs and Skills
Failure to recognize immigrant credentials also means that many immigrants are unable to obtain work in their area of expertise, and consequently end up in "survival jobs" in which their knowledge and training go untapped. This can be demonstrated by comparing the level of education immigrants have attained with the level of education required by the jobs they hold4.
Among employed recent immigrants in Ottawa who have a trade certificate or college diploma, 56% have jobs that typically do not require post-secondary education (38% have jobs requiring secondary school graduation only, and a further 18% have jobs that usually require no formal education).
More than one out of four university trained recent immigrants is employed in occupations that typically require only high school (18%) or no formal education (8%). Although this "mis-match" between educational attainment and job skill requirements is also found among the Canadian-born population, it is much less pronounced. For example, 26% of employed recent immigrants with a university degree have jobs requiring high school or less. The comparable figure for the Canadian-born population is 12%. In short, Ottawa's university educated recent immigrant population is twice as likely as the university educated Canadian-born population to have jobs that do not require a post-secondary education.
4 Under Canada's National Occupational Classification System, jobs are grouped into four basic skill levels. Skill level I refers to occupations usually requiring university education such as engineers, lawyers, physicians, registered nurses and teachers. Skill level II includes occupations that usually require a college education or apprenticeship training. Skill level III refers to occupations that usually require secondary school and/or occupation-specific training. Skill level IV includes jobs that usually require a short work demonstration but no formal educational requirement (cleaners, kitchen helpers, trades helpers, etc.). Return