One of the mantras I have been preaching for years now is the need to attract immigrants into actual employment opportunities. I realize this is not as simple as it seems given the sometimes strange world of immigration where prospective immigrants with lots of points can get in and ones that have the skills for certain jobs cannot.
The good news is that despite the fairly significant increase in immigration to the Moncton CMA, a high level of these immigrants are participating in the labour market. The table shows the labour market participation rate for urban centres with at least an immigrant population of 5,000. Among all urban centres east of Winnipeg, Moncton ranks 2nd for immigrant labour market participation. Obviously we have to be careful with this data as we have no way of knowing how many of the Syrian refugees are showing up in these numbers (not likely many given the timing of the Census). Also, in certain areas, the immigrant population might be older and there are more retirees in the mix.
But for the most part this is a good news story for Moncton. The more alignment between the inward migrants and actual labour market participation the better.
