By Shilpashree Jagannathan
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canada recruits skilled immigrants for their education and experience, but many find those same skills under-valued once they enter the Canadian labour market.

A new study co-authored by UBC professor Sima Sajjadiani argues that the problem goes beyond foreign-credential recognition. Skilled newcomers must often “translate” their education, work history and professional norms for employers who may not know how to assess them. Prof. Sajjadiani teaches organizational behaviour and human resources at the Sauder School of Business.

The study lands at a time when Canada may have less room to waste talent. A May 11 RBC Economics Report said slower immigration and rising retirements are tightening labour supply, with the labour-force participation rate falling to its lowest level since 1997, excluding the pandemic period.

For the study, researchers used machine learning to review more than 13,000 papers on first-generation adult immigrants, eventually narrowing their final sample to 833 papers on immigrant employment experiences.

Sajjadiani said the study tries to explain why immigrant underemployment is influenced by three factors: government policy, employers’ hiring criteria and how immigrants present themselves. She said education and work experience are shaped by the labour market where they were gained, in this case the country of origin. Résumé formats, interview styles and even how confidently a candidate speaks about past achievements can vary across cultures. That means a candidate may possess skills, but these may not always be visible to Canadian recruiters.

“All of these things that you have gained are there, but are really invisible to the recruiters and organizations in another country, and you need to know how to translate them,” she said. For employers, Sajjadiani said, one answer is to move beyond a narrow reading of credentials and job titles. She said structured interviews, better recruiter training and internal “crosswalk” systems that compare foreign credentials to Canadian equivalents could help organizations assess candidates more fairly.

She also said employers should focus less on whether they immediately recognize a credential and more on the skills, knowledge and abilities a person brings to the role. The study also found that social networks and a newcomer’s intention to stay can shape job quality. Sajjadiani said immigrants who see their time in Canada as temporary may rely on “co-ethnic networks” to find work quickly, but those jobs may not match their skills or education.

More diverse networks, she said, can open different avenues and help newcomers understand how the local labour market works.“Canada’s brand promises to skilled immigrants that you are coming here, we really pay attention to skills,” she said. “But then you come here and you don’t realize that your skill, what you’re bringing to the table, is completely invisible.”

At the same time, Sajjadiani said newcomers can take steps to make their credentials easier for employers to understand — by explaining the standing of their institutions, building diverse professional networks and using digital platforms such as LinkedIn even before arriving in Canada.

But she said employers and governments also have to build clearer pathways. Bridging programs, better credential mapping and hiring systems that focus on demonstrated skills could help Canada make better use of the talent it already selects.

Canada’s labour squeeze makes immigrant skills harder to waste

Canada’s labour market looks weaker on the surface, but an RBC Economics report says the deeper picture is more complicated. Job losses have been concentrated in sectors exposed to U.S. demand, while much of the domestic economy has continued to show resilience.

That matters for skilled immigrants because Canada is entering a tighter labour-supply environment. RBC says slower immigration and rising retirements are again putting pressure on the size of the workforce. By spring 2026, Canada’s labour-force participation rate had fallen to its lowest level since 1997, excluding the pandemic period.

Job losses are concentrated
RBC says U.S. tariffs have hit exposed Canadian industries hard, with employment in sectors dependent on U.S. demand falling two per cent since February 2025. Those losses, however, have not spread widely across the rest of the economy, where jobs tied more closely to domestic demand have continued to grow.

Layoffs are not driving the weakness
Canada lost jobs in three of the first four months of 2026, but RBC says permanent layoffs fell by nearly 10 per cent between October 2025 and April 2026. The bank describes the current labour market as “low hire, low fire,” meaning companies are cautious about adding staff but are not cutting workers at the pace normally seen in a downturn.

Young workers are being hit hardest
Weak hiring has left many labour-market entrants without work. RBC says the share of new jobs, meaning jobs started within the previous year, fell to a near-record low in April. More than one in four unemployed workers had been attending school before becoming unemployed, above the one-in-five average seen in the decade before the pandemic.

Hidden unemployment has not surged
RBC says broader unemployment measures do not show a large increase in discouraged workers or involuntary part-time employment. That suggests the official unemployment rate is capturing much of the labour-market strain, rather than missing a large pool of people who have quietly given up looking for work.

Hiring intentions are improving
Business surveys showed stronger hiring intentions early in 2026, with firms looking to boost productivity and capacity. RBC says small and medium-sized businesses also showed greater willingness to add jobs, though it remains unclear how quickly those plans will turn into actual hiring.

Aging is tightening labour supply
RBC says Canada’s rapid population growth between 2022 and 2024 temporarily offset the long-running decline in labour-force participation caused by aging. As immigration slowed in 2025, that decline resumed, reinforced by a record number of retirements.

Why it matters

The RBC report strengthens the central point of Sima Sajjadiani’s research: Canada cannot afford to recruit skilled immigrants and then leave their experience trapped behind unfamiliar credentials, résumé styles or hiring assumptions.

If retirements are accelerating and labour supply is tightening, the underemployment of skilled newcomers becomes more than a settlement issue. It becomes an economic waste Canada has less room to carry.