In 2023, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is placing a significant emphasis on Agriculture and Agri-Food within its Express Entry category-based draws. Explore Canada’s demand for agricultural workers in Express Entry.
The IRCC will implement category-based selection draws within the Express Entry system in 2023 in an effort to solve labor shortages in critical industries with substantial workforce gaps. These draws, which started on June 28, are intended to recruit people with experience in particular industries, such as healthcare, STEM, transportation, trades, and agriculture/agri-food. In order to promote Canada’s continued growth and development, this strategic strategy switches the emphasis from prioritizing individuals with appropriate sector-specific employment experience above those with only CRS scores.
The reasons for selecting agriculture/agri-food as a targeted Express Entry category
By 2029, there will be more than 123,000 job openings in the Agriculture & Agri-Food Labor Force category than can be filled by the local labor force, predicts the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC).
Canada has selected agriculture and agri-food as an Express Entry category deserving of special attention due to its crucial role in safeguarding the sustainability and advancement of the country.
The agriculture and agri-food industries provide more than $122 billion yearly, or 6.3% of Canada’s GDP, according to the CAHRC. As the need for food and agricultural goods continues to expand globally, this economic contribution is anticipated to climb.
These data, which support the IRCC’s choice to give this industry priority through category-based Express Entry selections in 2023, demonstrate the importance of the agriculture and agri-food industries to Canada as a whole.
Canada’s demand for agricultural workers in Express Entry
On April 29, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) released a report on the state of the agricultural labor force. According to the President of Nova Scotia, the province anticipates experiencing a deficit of more than 2,500 farm employees by 2029.
The Canadian government’s Job Bank released this information at the same time, documenting a sharp reduction in employment in the province over the previous ten years and a loss of over 20,000 industry jobs. In addition, Job Bank noted a large loss in employment in Alberta of 28,300 jobs, or 44 percent, between 2013 and 2022.
In a similar vein, employment in British Columbia fell by 10% over a ten-year period. These patterns point to serious labor shortages in the agricultural and agri-food industries in different provinces, revealing a general deficit in this sector across Canada.
The CBC had previously presented data showing that 40% of Canadian farmers intend to retire over the next ten years prior to the publication of the aforementioned survey. Furthermore, a startling 66% of these farmers don’t have a succession plan. According to research, there will be a 24,000-person labor shortage in farms, nurseries, and greenhouses. The preceding assessment acknowledged these difficulties and emphasized that Canada needs 30,000 entrants from the farming industry to help with the workforce shortfall.
Several tales and data support the acute need for tens of thousands of workers in Canada’s agricultural and food sectors.
What possibilities does this offer to potential immigrants considering a move to Canada?
According to data from the CAHRC, Canada’s agriculture industry has become more dependent on foreign labor as a result of a lack of domestic talent to meet labor shortages in this industry. Immigrants filled over 75% of the labor shortage in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sectors in 2017, and foreign workers constituted 17% of the country’s agricultural workforce.
Prospective immigrants interested in agriculture/agri-food work may discover significant employment prospects through this targeted occupational category given that Canada still had over 16,000 unfilled jobs in 2017 and taking into account the expanding labor deficit in this industry since then.
A brief overview of Express Entry draws for agriculture/agri-food workers
First category-based express entry draw for agriculture and food workers held by IRCC.
According to information acquired by the Globe and Mail from the IRCC in August of this year, “one to two” percent of all ITAs given under the Express Entry system for the remainder of 2023 would be based on draws for workers in the agriculture and food industries.
