In 2023, IRCC identified trade as one of the five priority occupational sectors for Express Entry category-based draws. This means there is a significant demand for trade workers in Canada’s Express Entry. The IRCC aims to attract skilled trades professionals to meet the country’s labor market needs. Explore the opportunities available for trades workers through Express Entry in Canada.
The Canadian federal government launched category-based Express Entry drawings in 2023 to proactively address labor market shortfalls in particular vocational categories. Healthcare, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), transportation, trades, and agriculture/agri-food are among the assigned categories for the year. By choosing qualified immigrants with the necessary knowledge, these draws seek to help businesses that are experiencing a severe labor shortage. Subsequent lotteries have matched immigration efforts with Canada’s labor needs for these five priority occupational categories since the first category-based draw took place on June 28.
Note: The new category-based draws, which have replaced the “standard” Express Entry draws, are distinguished from the former by their emphasis on candidate evaluation. Standard draws largely use CRS scores for ranking candidates, whereas the more recent category-based draws give candidates with particular work experience a higher importance.
The reason why trade were targeted for Express Entry
Skilled trades are extremely important because they are in high demand, offer meaningful career possibilities, and are crucial to communities across Canada, according to ESDC – Employment and Social Development Canada. ESDC’s forecasts indicate that the country will need more than 256,000 additional apprentices over the next five years to meet the national demand for skilled trades.
Additionally, according to a news release from the Government of Canada from August of this year, the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum projects that between 2022 and 2026, there will be a significant demand for more than 122,000 new journey people to sustain a qualified workforce in Red Seal trades across Canada. This demonstrates how experienced crafts workers are in the nation in demand.
Establishing industry standards and exams for Red Seal trades is crucially dependent on the Red Seal program. Those who pass the Red Seal exam receive a Red Seal endorsement, certifying that they have met all applicable national requirements for tradespersons.
The Canadian government’s choice to prioritize applicants with work experience in trade occupations through category-based draws in the present year is justified by the convergence of these projections and estimations.
Canada’s demand for trade workers in Express Entry
Additionally, BuildForce Canada has estimated that the Canadian construction industry will require the recruitment of roughly 299,200 new workers by 2032 to augment the demand predictions provided by the ESDC and the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum. The impending retirement of 20%, or approximately 245,100 people, of the labor force in this industry in 2022 primarily influences this estimate.
The Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS), an online tool that offers insights into occupational outlooks, is another resource provided by the ESDC in addition to these estimates. COPS projects that “trades helpers and laborers” will experience a nearly 20,000% increase in job vacancies between 2022 and 2031.
For further information, see the following breakdown of the factors that are likely to influence the appearance of new job vacancies in this occupational category in the near future:
Expansion Demand: The need for expansion within this field is expected to give rise to approximately 3,400 job openings, accounting for 17% of the total.
Retirements: Experienced workers exiting the industry will generate a significant portion, totaling 11,800 job openings (60% of the total).
Other Replacement Demand: Another 1,800 job openings (9% of the total) will result from factors beyond retirements, categorized as “other replacement demand.”
Emigration: Approximately 2,600 job openings (13% of the total) will emerge due to workers leaving the country, contributing to the overall demand for skilled trade workers.
These data show that in order to alleviate the labor shortages in the sector, Canada must immediately hire and educate a sizable number of new people in skilled trade vocations.
What prospects does this offer to individuals considering immigration to Canada?
A considerable number of ITAs for permanent residence in Canada were issued to people with trade experience last year, according to the 2022 year-end Express Entry report.
A similar pattern from 2021, when they were among the top five ITA recipients by primary occupation, continued in 2022, with cooks being among the top 15 primary occupations of Canadian immigrants who acquired an ITA.
This emphasizes the federal government’s commitment to embracing immigrants who can fill gaps in the nation’s skilled crafts labor market even before the implementation of category-based draws. Additionally, a comment by Ahmed Hussen, a former Canadian Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, highlights the vast employment opportunities for immigrants in the trades industry.
In order to alleviate Canada’s housing crisis, Hussen underlined the importance of skilled immigration, saying, “We actually need more individuals, talented immigrants, to also help us in the building trades and the construction sector of our economy. The employees must actually arrive and assist in the construction of the housing that Canadians require.
This demonstrates the possibility for prospective Canadian immigrants with recent experience in a specialized trade to build successful careers in the nation. It implies that taking part in category-based Express Entry draws for trade vocations may present them with potential chances in Canada’s construction and building trades industry.
Overview of Express Entry draws for trades
IRCC has only ever issued one set of invites specifically for Express Entry applicants with recent trade vocations.
On August 3, this draw invited 1,500 immigrants with work-related trade experience to apply for permanent residence in Canada. In this draw, candidates required a minimum CRS score of 388 to qualify.
It’s interesting to note that, just prior to this category-based trades occupation draw, data obtained from IRCC, as reported by the Globe and Mail, indicated that such draws would represent roughly “three to four” percent of all ITAs issued under Express Entry for the remaining months of the year. This demonstrates how crucial tradespeople are to Canada’s immigration policy.
