More Canadians working past age of 65: 2016 Census

Immigrants accounted for nearly one-quarter of Canada’s labour force in 2016

 

MORE people are working past the age of 65. Nearly one in five Canadians aged 65 and older reported working at some point during 2015. This was almost double the proportion in 1995. In 2015, 5.9% of seniors worked all year, full time, the highest level since comparable measures were introduced in the 1981 Census, according to Statistics Canada.

Fewer core-aged men (those aged 25 to 54) are working full-time all year. In 2015, 56.2% of men aged 25 to 54 worked full-time all year, down from 63.3% a decade earlier, and the lowest proportion since 1980—the first reference year for which comparable statistics were collected. The proportion of core-aged women who worked full-time all year also declined, but to a lesser extent.

From 2006 to 2016, the employment rate fell from 62.6% to 60.2%.

The Prairie provinces, as well as Yukon and the Northwest Territories, had the highest employment rates in 2016, while Newfoundland and Labrador and Nunavut had the lowest. These differences are related in part to variations in age structure and migration patterns across the country.

Immigrants accounted for nearly one-quarter of Canada’s labour force in 2016.

Core-aged recent immigrants (those who landed within the previous five years) had an employment rate of 68.5%, up from 67% in 2006.

Over the same period, the employment rate for both the core-aged Canadian born and those who immigrated more than five years earlier edged down.

From 2006 to 2016, employment rates increased for core-aged Métis women and held steady for First Nations women aged 25 to 54 living off-reserve. It declined for other core-aged Aboriginal groups.

Youth aged 15 to 24 were less likely to work in 2016 compared with 2006, and the decline in the employment rate was greater for young men than for young women. As well, work activity decreased for both those who reported attending school as well as those who did not.

Continuing a trend which began more than 50 years ago, employment growth was strongest in service-producing industries from 2006 to 2016, most notably in health care and social assistance as well as in retail trade. At the same time, there were fewer people working in goods-producing sectors.

There were notable gender differences across occupational groups, with women outnumbering men four to one among fast-growing health occupations, while men outnumbered women three to one in high-tech occupations.

Gender disparities in managerial occupations persisted, with men comprising 62.2% of that occupation group. At the same time, there were shifts in the types of managerial occupations by gender.