Canada

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Canadian companies ramped up their recruitment of temporary foreign workers last year, even as the labour market softened and the unemployment rate drifted higher.

During the last quarter of 2023, employers were approved to fill more than 81,000 positions through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, according to figures shared by the federal government with The Globe and Mail.

Over the past two years, employers have increased their recruitment of cooks, retail clerks and cleaners paid low hourly wages, among other occupations in high demand.

After the early devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian labour market became exceptionally tight – the unemployment rate hit a low of 4.8 per cent in the summer of 2022 – leading to fierce competition to fill vacancies.

“This still exceeds the 10 per cent limit that existed before 2022 and the health care and construction industries are exempted,” wrote the economists Mikal Skuterud and Parisa Mahboubi on the website of the C.D.

The ESDC numbers reflect the first part of the hiring process; after the employer is approved, foreign workers must get the requisite permits to begin their jobs in Canada.

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