Research the job market before coming to Canada on PR

Deciding to move thousands of miles away from your home to Canada? How's the job search coming through? I am almost certain that 99/100 people would say something like "I'm moving there without a job, I'll have to figure out once I reach there. Nothing much is turning up while I am in my home country." Well, I went through the same experience and cannot refute the validity or sincerity behind such a statement. But the major problem is - majority of the people don't gather more understanding on where and how to carry out their research of the Canadian job market. Simply coming to Canada and searching for a job isn't going to make things easy . And coming unprepared is the worst thing you can do on this long and scary journey.

Before I start, I would like to mention that if you are a newcomer or planning to move to Canada, you may also want refer two of my previous articles. I am certain they will benefit you in some capacity:

• What I learned about finding a job as a Newcomer to Canada !
• Build an amazing LinkedIn profile and Beyond !

I'll try to lay the ground for this topic. To address the gap of understanding on how and where to research, I'll share all that I learned during my move to Canada. Some big questions that should be asked and addressed before moving to Canada are:

1. How good is the current job market in Canada ?
2. Am I too young or too old to fit into the market ?
3. Which City should I move in ?
4. Is there a way to understand region wise scope for jobs ?
5. Will my education be sufficient or valued in Canada to get a job in my field?
6. Are professionals similar to my expertise/ my field being hired in the market?
7. What should be my outlook for salary ?

I am sure you've already been asking these questions. Now let's get into it.

Note: Don't just start applying for jobs by going on various website. There are repercussions to it. Research well before beginning your journey. The research can be overwhelming in the beginning, but break it down as you go and it will get easier. For reference, I will use my personal professional background - Consulting in Business Management (or job code 1122). You you can do it for your profession too, following the same path.

Addressing the questions sequentially:

1. How good is the current job market: If you ask such a generic question, do not expect pointed answers. It is only going to help you understand the overall market situation. I would suggest referring the undermentioned websites. There are several websites, but these were my first choice.

• Statistics Canada
• Robert Half

This provides a glimpse of what to expect. It is broken down to really basic statistics. So there begins your first step into understanding the overall market and trends. Don't get bogged down by the length of these reports. Be selective in what sections you read and what you use further in your research.

2. Am I a good fit or old enough or too old to fit into the Canadian market: Again, these are broad questions. We haven't even scratched the surface related to your specialization/ domain yet.

a.) First let's understand what is this big hoopla around age. Why is the government granting more points (FSWP, EE, pnp,etc) to people who are less than 30 years of age ? In my basic research I found that it has more to do with demographics than labor market. As you can see in the link (Demographics) around 35-40% of the Canadian population is over 45 years of age. So that means, in 10-15 years there will be huge retiring work force and Canada will need skilled and quality people to take over their places. That's why such heavy focus on promoting entry to younger people by giving them more points.

This doesn't mean that there is no place for people with 10-15-20 years of experience. There certainly is, but these professionals need more research and efforts to get through. Moreover you need proper connections and networks. Why do I say so....?

b) As we can see in this link (Age Wise - Employment stats) there are approximately 8,000,000 people above 45 years of age and approximately 11,000,000 between 15 and 45 years of age currently employed. That means there is constant outflow of people nearing the retirement age. So getting through, if you are 40/45+ is not going to be impossible, but nothing is easy.

To extract more understanding from this data, use the filter option on the tabs. This provides a focused understanding on region and age-wise employment.

3. What city should I move? Which region is good for me ? In continuation to the previous section..(only talking about professional decision, not about lifestyle, taxes, expense, education for kids, etc. An independent research is needed to understand those aspects)

Region Wise report for Job Code 1122 - Link

As can be seen, it is for - Professional occupations in Business Management Consulting or Job Code 1122. You can use your job code to research more. The good part is, it gives Province-Wise stats, but the best part is that it gives a region-wise stats within each province. You can click on it and explore more.

For e.g. when you click on the Toronto Region link on that page, it will give the latest news along with stats. Some of the news is interesting and the smart guys know how to leverage that news. Also refer the image in section 5.

4. Will my education be sufficient or valued to get a job in my field ?

Without much explaining, click on the Education tab and you'll see what you need to know. I am sure you have done some research around prerequisite certifications required and also your credentials have been evaluated by WES. This could be an enhanced validation of your older research, if any.

5. Is my expertise in demand or currently needed in Canada ?

Same page. Outlook tab. Also, the news sections gives you some glimpse as to what the overall sentiment is.

6. What should be my outlook for salary ?

For all those who have been yelling that Job Banks is a waste of time. Hold your and research more. Madams and sirs, you have not been referring the correct pages on the website. Explore it correctly. Go to the link below and explore. This link has everything from job openings to wage outlook.

• Job Market and Wage Outlook Reports - Link
• Hays Salary Guide
• Glassdoor

7. How do I start applying?

Refer my older articles. Also refer the link mentioned in section 6 (Job market and Wake Outlook reports). When you open this link, I know some of you will say, 'the wage outlook data is good, but the jobs are linked to a Workopolis or a Monster! How is it better than Indeed?' Well it acts like an aggregation tool, I don't deny that. But, also search for jobs where you can directly apply via job banks. They are exclusively on Job Banks. You will mostly not find them any where else.

These links are just some of the ready sources that you will need during your job market research. Research more and enrich your database and knowledge around it. I'm sure there is much more than the ones listed here. Do share them in comments if you find them

On such a transforming journey - Plan Well, Research Well ! It will certainly make life easier. Knowledge is certainly power and with such amazing resources made available, there is no reason to not leverage them.

PS: The Job Banks and Statscan sites gives error at times due to overload or incorrect term used in your search. The links provided here are correct.

Good Luck and see you in Canada !

#newcomertocanada