In a comparison of the 26 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Ottawa ranks number one in terms of the proportion of its 25-64 year old workforce with post-secondary credentials. Ottawa's highly educated immigrant workforce contributes to this top ranking. In fact, under the purely hypothetical scenario in which no immigrants came to Ottawa, Ottawa's rank would fall to #3. This is because Ottawa's immigrant workforce tends to have somewhat higher levels of educational attainment than its Canadian-born workforce.

What kind of skills?

Most immigrants enter Canada through the skilled worker immigration stream. To qualify as a skilled worker, principal applicants must have a minimum of one year of full-time work experience in a managerial, professional, technical or other skilled occupation as outlined by Canada's National Occupational Classification system. Importantly, Citizenship and Immigration Canada restricts certain occupations to safeguard the Canadian labour market by making sure that Canada does not have too may people with the same skills. In addition, skilled worker applicants are evaluated by a point system which takes into consideration level of education, official language proficiency, amount of work experience; age, whether the applicant has arranged employment, and adaptability, which includes such things as spouse's level of education. As a result of this selection and evaluation process, immigrant skills usually reflect the needs of the Canadian labour market.