Workers inspect sheets of stainless steel after being pressed from coils, at Magna Stainless and Aluminum in Montréal in September 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

American tariffs have reshaped Canada’s manufacturing sector, but labour-market impacts have not been evenly shared across workers.

The United States imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum, automobiles and auto parts as part of a broader protectionist push under Donald Trump’s administration. Canada’s government responded with its own counter-tariffs and trade measures, but disruptions to the industry were already underway by that point.

Manufacturing is a major source of employment for both immigrant and Canadian-born workers. It includes everything from automotive and aerospace parts to food processing and steel products, and it contributes roughly 10 per cent of Canada’s GDP.

Manufacturing is particularly vulnerable to U.S. tariffs because of its deep integration with cross-border supply chains. More than 60 per cent of Canada’s manufacturing sector has substantial trade exposure to the U.S., making it the primary channel through which tariffs affect the Canadian economy.

As firms adjusted to rising costs and trade uncertainty, immigrant and Canadian-born workers experienced different forms of employment risk at different points in 2025.

A sector under strain

A recent report shows that between January and September 2025, Canada’s manufacturing sector experienced lower production, fewer jobs and higher prices.

After momentum earlier in the year, manufacturing jobs fell sharply in the spring, with the largest consecutive job losses occurring in April, when 30,600 jobs were lost, and May, when a further 12,200 jobs disappeared. Overall, employment fell by nearly 43,000 workers between March and May.

This was followed by persistent instability rather than sustained recovery later in the year. Employment rebounded in September, with 27,800 jobs gained, and rose again in October, but these gains were partially reversed in November, when 9,300 jobs were lost.

Firms responded to the tariff shocks through delayed and incremental employment cuts, but these sector-wide adjustments were experienced differently by immigrant and Canadian-born workers.

Immigrant workers are more vulnerable

Not all workers felt the shocks from the labour market equally. Immigrant workers were disproportionately affected by tariff-related employment adjustments and are particularly vulnerable when manufacturing employment becomes unstable.

Manufacturing is a critical source of employment for immigrants, particularly in large metropolitan regions and along industrial corridors.

In March 2025, immigrants accounted for 30 per cent of employment in Canada’s manufacturing sector, compared with 70 per cent of Canadian-born workers. By December 2025, however, the immigrant share had declined to 28 per cent, while the share of Canadian-born workers increased to 72 per cent.

This disparity was compounded by a structural educational mismatch. While 80 per cent of workers in the sector don’t have a university degree, immigrant workers were more than twice as likely as Canadian-born workers to be university educated.

Nevertheless, these higher education levels often do not translate into higher-paid roles within manufacturing.

Lower wages amplify employment risk

Wage data shows that many immigrant manufacturing workers are concentrated in lower-paid or more labour-intensive jobs that are particularly vulnerable during an economic downturn.

Throughout 2025, immigrant workers earned roughly $2.50 to $3 less per hour than Canadian-born workers. This gap did not narrow even when wages recovered later in the year.

Average hourly wages for all workers increased from $34.43 in March to $35.29 in December. Yet the wage gap for immigrant workers widened slightly — from $2.52 to $2.56.

Lower pay combined with higher educational attainment points to persistent credential under-utilization, meaning workers possess skills or qualifications that are not fully used or rewarded in their jobs. This under-utilization increases immigrant workers’ exposure to employment instability when trade disruptions occur.

How job loss patterns shifted

Job loss also unfolded differently over time. In the first half of 2025, unemployed former workers who were immigrants were more likely to report layoffs — temporary or permanent — as the cause of their joblessness.

That share remained consistently high — at 66 per cent in June — before gradually declining later in the year. By December, 51 per cent of immigrant former workers reported job loss as the reason for unemployment.

In contrast, job loss became increasingly concentrated among Canadian-born workers in the second half of the year. In March, only 53 per cent reported job loss as the reason for unemployment. This share rose steadily throughout the rest of the year, reaching 71 per cent by December.

These trends indicate that firms initially relied more heavily on reductions in immigrant labour, and later expanded layoffs to include Canadian-born workers as tariff pressures persisted.

Differential adjustment strategies

U.S. tariffs reshaped Canadian manufacturing not through a single employment shock, but through different labour-adjustment strategies over time.

Highly educated immigrant workers, many of whom were concentrated in lower-paid roles, were more exposed to early layoffs, wage penalties and unstable employment. As tariff pressures deepened, job loss became more concentrated among Canadian-born workers as longer-term restructuring took place.

These patterns matter for policy. If manufacturing is to remain a viable pillar of the Canadian economy in an era of trade disruption, policy responses must recognize these unequal adjustment patterns and address the underlying vulnerabilities that leave some workers more exposed than others.

This could include targeted income supports and rapid-response training for displaced workers, and tailored settlement and employment services for immigrant workers who, as a group, are concentrated in lower-wage and more unstable jobs.

In addition, better co-ordination between trade, industrial, and immigration policies could help ensure that adjustment costs are not disproportionately borne by already vulnerable workers.

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Gratitude statements like “Thanks! You are so kind!” and “Thank you! What you did was really helpful,” are common when someone receives assistance from another person. Such expressions of gratitude and appreciation have long been thought to encourage the helper to do kind things again in the future. But do they?

In contrast to past research, our new findings published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggest that gratitude does not always promote future helping.

Our research was conducted using a new approach called a Registered Report. It required that the design of our experiment, along with our hypotheses and analytic plans, were vetted by experts before we started. This new best practice in science increases rigour and transparency.

Expressions of gratitude

We conducted two large pre-registered experiments and found mixed results. In the first experiment, more than 600 university students recorded a short video to welcome a new student (played by a member of our research team) to campus.

In response to this kind act, we sent participants one of three randomly assigned pre-recorded videos. Some participants received a video in which the new student expressed gratitude for the participant’s kind act: “Thank you! What you did was very kind.”

Other participants received a video in which the new student expressed gratitude for the participant’s kind character: “Thank you! You are very kind.”

Finally, some participants in a control condition received a video of the new student acknowledging that they had received the recording, but with no expression of gratitude at all.

Afterwards, all participants were invited to write up to five brief notes to welcome other new students to university, which we treated as a measure of future helping behaviour.

Reception and kindness

By sending participants one of the three video replies, we were able to test two important questions about gratitude. Does receiving an expression of gratitude, regardless of whether it mentions your kind act or kind character, lead to more helping in the future compared to not receiving gratitude? Also, does the content of the gratitude matter — in other words, do some gratitude notes lead to more helping in the future than others?

To find out, we compared how many welcome notes participants wrote across the three video conditions provided. We found no differences across conditions, which suggests that receiving a gratitude expression and its contents may not impact future helping.

These results were in contrast to our predictions and past work by others.

Written expressions

Welcoming new students is one way to be kind, but there are many other ways to help. So, we conducted another experiment to test the same key questions. Does receiving a gratitude expression increase future helping behaviour? And does the content of the gratitude message matter?

This time, however, we used written thank-you messages instead of videos and measured helping in the form of donations.

Over 800 adults recruited online completed an innocuous survey that provided an opportunity to complete an initial kind act of donating to charity. Two days later, participants were invited back to complete a second survey that began with what we told participants was a thank-you letter from the charity they supported — participants received one of three letters we had created for the purposes of our study.

As in the first study, some participants were thanked for their kind act: “Thank you! Your generous donation was very kind.” Other participants were thanked for their kind character: “Thank you! You are very kind and generous.”

Once again, some participants did not receive a message of thanks, but were informed that their donation had been received. Participants completed a few other questions and were then given the opportunity to help again by deciding how much, if any, of an additional one-dollar bonus they would like to donate to a new charity.

We compared donations across the three conditions and found that people who received a thank-you note gave more money than people who received a simple message that their donation was received. Donation levels did not differ between the two types of gratitude expressions. People thanked for their kind act gave roughly as much (42 cents) as people who were thanked for their kind character (42 cents), which was higher than the 34 cents given by people in the control condition.

Everyday importance

While we did not see significant differences in help provided by people who were thanked for their kind action or character, this does not mean that people should stop saying thanks. Expressing gratitude can make the person expressing appreciation feel good and strengthen social relationships.

There may be less reason to stress over how exactly you express your appreciation to others. Past research has shown that many people are uncertain about how to properly and eloquently relay their gratitude.

Unfortunately, these worries can reduce the likelihood of someone sharing a simple but heartfelt statement of appreciation and our work reinforces this same underlying idea.

Exactly what is said when expressing thanks may be less important than communicating appreciation.

Kelton Travis, an honours undergraduate student in psychology at Simon Fraser University, co-authored this article.

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Many writers, actors and other creatives are currently experiencing a small wave of panic about artificial intelligence (AI) taking over their jobs.

Generative AI (GenAI) is making machine learning and creative work more accessible to everyone. But for industry professionals, the rise of generative AI can signal the destruction of creative jobs.

Yet, according to a recent report by the World Economic Forum, AI will create more jobs in the next five years than it will displace.

We are four scholars in different creative industries hoping to explore educational approaches to AI. We want to help prepare the next generation to innovate within human-AI collaborative frameworks. To do this, we have begun to confer with other creative professionals through an online survey.

What if AI can actually support human creativity and productivity? Can we use these technologies to our advantage? What we can expect for the future?

We believe creative professionals can harness new technologies while still upholding their foundational creative and ethical principles.

How AI is being used in creative sectors

AI is becoming deeply embedded within the operational workflows of creative industries, from a nascent concept to an integrated reality.

Media and creative workers have gone on strike to protest the use of AI, sparking important conversations. For example, Screenwriters in Hollywood and the Writers’ Union of Canada have raised concerns and helped shape new policies around AI and creative work.

Within media production, large language models (LLMs) can facilitate the rapid prototyping of narrative concepts, scripts and audiovisual materials, while automated editing platforms and AI-driven visual effects create massive efficiency gains in post-production. This technological integration allows creators to shift their focus from laborious manual tasks to higher-level creative refinement.

In graphic communication and packaging, AI and machine learning are acknowledged drivers of change. AI can enhance processes from ideation to production logistics like sorting and personalized web-to-print platforms. In the realm of Digital Asset Management, AI is instrumental in improving asset discoverability and utility through automated metadata tagging and sophisticated image recognition.

Journalism is also undergoing a significant transformation. AI has been used for a while now to analyze large datasets for investigative reporting, but LLMs now routinely streamline article summarization. More advanced applications are emerging: AI systems are designed to identify news values and auto-generate articles from live events. Major news organizations like the Financial Times and The New York Times are already deploying AI tools in their newsrooms.

Ethical challenges

The integration of AI is not without considerable challenges.

The generation of fabricated information and non-existent sources are documented failures. These examples highlight critical issues with accuracy and reliability.

Many people have said they do not fully understand the extent to which AI is incorporated into their standard software. This disparity between deployment and user consciousness underscores the subtle yet pervasive nature of AI’s integration. This points to an urgent need for greater transparency and digital literacy.

Bias and intellectual property

Models trained on vast, uncurated internet data often replicate and amplify existing societal biases. For example, studies demonstrate persistent issues such as anti-Muslim bias in LLMs.

At the same time, urgent ethical and legal questions regarding intellectual property have emerged. The training of LLMs on copyrighted content without compensation has created significant friction. For example, the pending New York Times litigation against OpenAI highlights unresolved issues of fair use and remuneration for creative work.

Conversely, GenAI demonstrates considerable potential to democratize creative production. These tools, by lowering technical barriers and automating complex processes, can provide access to individuals and groups historically excluded from creative fields due to resource or educational constraints.

Specific applications are already enhancing media accessibility, such as AI-powered tools that automatically generate alt text for images and subtitles for video content.

Navigating this dual-use landscape necessitates the adoption of robust governance frameworks. Fostering industry-wide equity, diversity and innovation education is essential to mitigate risks while harnessing GenAI’s potential for an inclusive creative ecosystem.

Labour and skill evolution

Technological revolutions have historically catalyzed significant transformations in creative labour markets and GenAI represents the latest disruptive force.

The proliferation of GenAI has once again reshaped the creative industries, demanding new professional competencies.

Human creativity and intervention are indispensable, providing cultural and contextual accuracy. Humans must also review AI-generated content for quality and inclusivity.

In response to this shift, higher education institutions need to recalibrate curricula from tool-specific training towards fostering curiosity, ethical reasoning and AI literacy.

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Canada has a shortage of skilled workers including health-care professionals. Here, nurses at a Day of Action against cutbacks by the Alberta Government, in Edmonton, Aug. 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Skilled migrants and international students are leaving the United States for Canada in growing numbers. A March 2025 report by Statistics Canada reveals a sharp rise in the numbers of American non-citizen residents moving to Canada. Reasons given are largely restrictive U.S. immigration policies, visa caps and long wait times for green cards.

This is a shift from earlier decades when American-born citizens dominated the trend. By 2019, nearly half of those making the move were U.S. non-citizen residents.

Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s election win and early days in office, Google searches by American residents on how to move to Canada, New Zealand and Australia have surged.

Several high-profile academics have relocated to Canadian universities amid growing concerns over threats to academic freedom.

British Columbia recently announced plans to launch landmark policies to streamline the credential recognition process for internationally trained health-care professionals, particular American doctors and nurses.

Skilled talent like health-care professionals, researchers and engineers are essential to building innovative, future-ready economies. But attracting them requires staying competitive in an increasingly global bid for talent.

Global competition for talent

In this global race for talent, Canada and Australia need to offer not only efficient immigration pathways but also faster credential recognition and better integration support.

Yet both nations find themselves walking a tightrope. Once both celebrated as welcoming destinations for global talent, each country has experienced recent immigration restrictions and growing anti-immigration sentiments, undermining those reputations.

What can these countries learn from each other to stay competitive and benefit from this talent flow?

Research from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Migration and Integration Program shows Canada’s appeal for skilled migrants is rooted in a mix of practical and aspirational factors. This includes a combination of high living standards, the promise of better career prospects, more accessible permanent residency pathways and a broadly welcoming society.

But for migrants in Canada, these goals are becoming harder to attain.

A more cautious approach

Since the pandemic, Canada’s immigration approach has shifted. During the early COVID-19 years, Canada was praised for its inclusive response, including recognizing immigrants as essential to economic recovery. Temporary workers, including essential workers, international student graduates and French-speaking immigrants, were offered new routes to permanent residency through a federal program.

However, since 2024, Canada has taken a more cautious approach.

New policy changes that target international students and cut temporary and permanent migration numbers have tarnished Canada’s global reputation as a welcoming place.

While permanent residency is still more accessible than in the U.S., skilled migrants are increasingly questioning whether the wait for permanent residency is worth it.

Australia visa rules slow things down

Australia faces similar dilemmas. In late 2023, the government launched a new migration strategy to address critical workforce shortages in construction, tech and health care. The Skills in Demand visa promised faster processing and clearer pathways to permanent residency for workers in priority sectors.

Yet a recent report by the Grattan institute warns that tighter eligibility rules risk excluding much-needed talent, potentially weakening Australia’s competitiveness.

Growing visa delays are also noted to be an additional barrier that may deter both prospective migrants and employers.

Working in jobs far below qualifications

Migration data often tells a story of numbers, categories and eligibility thresholds. However, the human stories behind the numbers reveal deep systemic issues and missed opportunities. One recurring issue is the widespread phenomenon of deskilling.

In both Canada and Australia, many skilled migrants often find themselves working in jobs far below their qualifications.

These experiences are part of a pattern that affects not only individuals but also national economies, which lose out on the full potential of their skilled workforce.

Credential recognition systems are opaque, inconsistent and frequently biased.

Another overlooked issue is that many skilled migrants do not move alone. People arrive with spouses, children and sometimes elderly parents.

Yet immigration and settlement systems in both countries are largely structured around individual economic migrants rather than families. In Canada, for instance, federally funded settlement services are mainly geared toward supporting only permanent residents.

Many spouses, particularly women, face even greater barriers to employment. Issues also include things like high fees for visa processing for parents. Other considerations include children who may struggle with schooling and identity in unfamiliar environments.

Housing shortages and high costs in major urban centres compound these challenges, pushing newcomers into unaffordable living conditions.

All this contributes to growing disillusionment. Migrants initially drawn to Canada or Australia as alternatives to unwelcoming environments elsewhere may choose to still come, but it doesn’t mean they will stay.

Learning from each other: Canada and Australia

The experiences of skilled migrants in Canada and Australia show that attracting talent is only half the battle. The real challenge is in retention and integration.

Many countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea and some Gulf states have begun offering more competitive pathways to immigration along with promises of a work-life balance, streamlined visa programs and competitive salaries. This means skilled migrants are increasingly mobile.

Australia has made strides in streamlining visa categories and targeting sectoral needs, while Canada has built a strong narrative around inclusion and multiculturalism.

However, there is a need to combine Australia’s responsiveness and Canada’s inclusive ethos to build resilient migration systems.

Build future-ready migration systems

In an era defined by geopolitical uncertainties, countries can no longer afford to treat skilled migrants as temporary fixes or just economic inputs. They are people with aspirations, with families and with dreams.

They must be seen and supported as future citizens. To build future-ready migration systems Canada must:

• Ensure transparency and consistency in immigration pathways to reduce uncertainties caused by policy reversals and lengthy processing times.
• Improve credential recognition and career support to help skilled migrants, including temporary residents, transition into roles that match their qualifications.
• Develop regional settlement strategies to address where migrants settle and ensure equitable access to services, job markets and housing, especially outside major cities.
• Adopt inclusive, intersectional policies that consider gender, race and class in shaping the migrant experience, including support for spouses, children and aging parents.
• Foster collaborative and responsive policymaking. This involves connecting researchers, employers, community organizations and migrants to inform policy making.

For Canada, the challenge ahead is clear. It’s not just about opening the door. It’s about making sure that once here, migrants have the support, rights and opportunities to walk through that door — and thrive.

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Migrant workers have long been recognized as essential to Canada’s economy. But that recognition rarely translates into meaningful inclusion. As Canada embarks on new immigration reforms, persistent inequalities continue to define who truly belongs, and who remains excluded.

In March, the federal government announced a new national pathway to permanent residence for up to 6,000 out-of-status construction workers.

Although framed as a recognition of essential labour, the new program highlights a deeper reality: Canada’s immigration reforms continue to prioritize business and industry needs. In this instance, those needs are in housing and construction.

This selective approach reveals deeper patterns in Canada’s immigration system, often described as a hierarchy of deservingness. This framework assigns greater value to certain types of labour, while sidelining others. This sidelining is often based on race, gender and class and limits access to recognition and rights for all essential workers.

Former Immigration Minister Marc Miller estimated that between 300,000 and 600,000 out-of-status people were living in Canada as of 2024. The new construction worker pathway, while important for some, will address only a tiny fraction of this population.

Political and industry priorities

With a federal election on the horizon, the construction worker pathway is as much a political move as a policy reform.

The program expands on a pilot that granted permanent residence to approximately 1,365 people and their families in the Greater Toronto Area before closing in December 2024.

The current national rollout of the program reflects public and industry pressure to address Canada’s housing crisis. Housing has become a top priority for governments across the country.

Developers and industry groups, such as the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, have long lobbied for faster housing construction and more skilled trades workers. Their advocacy, combined with widespread concern over affordability, made it politically attractive to prioritize construction labour rather than implement broader regularization efforts.

But this approach exposes who is left out. Sectors like caregiving, domestic work and agriculture, largely dominated by racialized and feminized labour continue to be excluded from clear and inclusive pathways to status.

Canada’s low-wage economy has historically depended on the labour of racialized and immigrant women. Migrants in these sectors, often work in private or hidden spaces, making their labour less visible and politically legible.

Caregiving and domestic work in Canada have historically been undervalued. It is often framed as natural extensions of women’s roles and systematically marginalized in immigration policy through programs like the Live-in Caregiver Program.

Fragmented, insufficient system

Research confirms that Canada’s approach remains fragmented and insufficient. As part of my work with MIrreM, an international project studying irregular migration and regularization policies, we found that Canadian programs are often small, sector-specific and constrained by narrow eligibility criteria.

New federal government Home Care Worker Immigration pilots offer another highly competitive pathway to residency.

But these programs remain narrowly targeted, restricted and quickly capped, with application limits often reached on the same day they open. They also provide little relief for the many out-of-status caregivers already living and working in Canada.

Other countries have demonstrated that large-scale, inclusive reforms are possible, offering Canada a model to follow.

Spain’s 2005 regularization program successfully granted legal status to 700,000 people. The Spanish assessment recognized employment records, community ties and long-term residence. This model shows that broad, fair regularization strategies can balance administrative efficiency with political feasibility.

Meanwhile, Canada’s fragmented reforms exclude most out-of-status critical workers. And it leaves them without any sustainable pathway to status, prolonging their vulnerability and insecurity.

A comprehensive immigration strategy needed

Canada urgently needs a transparent, fair and scaleable immigration strategy. It must be one that values people’s contributions, not just the immediate needs of businesses.

Cleaners, caregivers, farm labourers, food service workers and others deserve the same recognition and opportunity as those in construction.

A comprehensive regularization strategy would not only uphold dignity and fairness. It would also strengthen Canada’s economy, improve labour protections and promote social inclusion.

As Canadians prepare to head to the polls, the incoming government faces a critical choice.

It can continue with piecemeal, politically convenient reforms that leave most out-of-status workers behind. Or it can commit to a broad, rights-based regularization strategy that recognizes the full social fabric of those who sustain this country.

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Despite Canada’s commitment to gender equity through human rights legislation and policies, the country ranked eighth in gender pay disparity among 43 nations in 2018.

While gender wage gaps affect all women, they are particularly pronounced for those from marginalized communities. A 2015 United Nations Human Rights report raised concerns about “the persisting inequalities between women and men” in Canada, highlighting the gender pay gap and its disproportionate impact on low-income, racialized and Indigenous women.

Historical data reflects the persistence of these inequalities. The 2001 and 2016 censuses reveal that labour market inequalities in Canada have remained both gendered and racialized over the past two decades.

Racialized immigrant women are among the most disadvantaged groups in Canada’s labour force. They experience higher unemployment rates and lower incomes than racialized men, non-racialized men and non-racialized women, regardless of whether they are immigrants or Canadian-born.

Building on this evidence, my recent analysis of the 2021 census further illustrates the ongoing disparities racialized immigrant women face in the Canadian labour market — even among those with university education.

A triple disadvantage

As of 2021, immigrants comprised about 23 per cent of Canada’s population, with racialized women making up 36 per cent of all immigrants. Their presence plays a critical role in Canada’s demographic composition and economic growth.

However, systemic barriers continue to limit their economic potential. Racialized immigrant women face a triple disadvantage due to their race, immigrant status and gender, making it harder for them to secure employment.

Data from 2021 highlights these disparities. Racialized immigrant women aged 25 to 54 had the lowest labour force participation and employment rates, and the highest unemployment rates.

The labour force participation rate measures the percentage of the working-age population that is either employed or actively seeking work, while the employment rate is the percentage of the working-age population that is employed.

The labour force participation rate of racialized immigrant women was 77 per cent, the lowest among all immigrant groups. Their employment rate was 68 per cent, significantly lower than that of racialized immigrant men (82 per cent) and non-racialized immigrant women (74 per cent).

Additionally, their unemployment rate reached 12 per cent, exceeding racialized immigrant men by seven percentage points and non-racialized immigrant women by three percentage points.

In contrast, Canadian-born women face fewer employment disparities between racialized and non-racialized groups. This suggests that labour market barriers are particularly harsh for immigrant women of colour.

Wage gaps reflect the triple disadvantage

Wage disparities in Canada vary significantly across demographic lines, with immigrant women facing the greatest disadvantages.

In 2020, racialized immigrant women aged 15 and over had the lowest median employment income of $30,400. Their earnings lagged behind racialized immigrant men, and non-racialized immigrant men and women.

While higher education improves earnings, it does not eliminate these disparities.

University-educated racialized immigrant women earned an average of $41,200 in 2020, compared to $57,200 for their male counterparts — a gender wage gap of 28 per cent.

Additionally, they earned 19 per cent less than non-racialized immigrant women ($50,800) and 32 per cent less than non-racialized Canadian-born women ($60,400). This placed them at the bottom of the earnings hierarchy.

These figures indicate that educational attainment alone is not enough to overcome the structural barriers that limit economic opportunities for racialized immigrant women. More deliberate actions are needed.

The road ahead

Despite initiatives like the Racialized Newcomer Women Pilot, which the federal government launched in 2018 to support career advancement for racialized newcomer women, employment and wage disparities persist.

Research has identified several structural factors that limit their access to meaningful economic opportunities. These barriers include gender biases, institutional racism, disproportionate caregiving responsibilities, the non-recognition of foreign credentials, gender gaps in skill development and job transitions, and occupational segregation.

To address these challenges, future research should adopt a problem-solving approach to address the root causes. Simultaneously, a comprehensive policy response is needed to tackle the systemic barriers in the labour market.

Targeted solutions are needed to help racialized immigrant women. Strengthening credential recognition, for instance, can help employers assess transferable skills across countries. Implementing equitable hiring practices and workplace integration policies are also essential.

Digital technology and artificial intelligence can also help eliminate bias in hiring and job matching. Settlement programs should account for the intersecting identities of racialized immigrant women to provide tailored support.

Most importantly, it’s crucial to recognize that ensuring equitable access to meaningful employment is not only vital for advancing gender and racial equity, but also essential for unlocking Canada’s full economic potential.

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Canada’s labour market struggles are not caused by the number of newcomers, but by systemic issues such as underemployment and skills-job mismatches. (Shutterstock)

Recent immigration reforms in Canada have cut international student and temporary resident numbers, restricted work permits for them and their spouses and aim to reduce permanent resident admissions by 21 per cent in 2025, with further cuts ahead.

Such changes are aimed to avoid competition with local unemployed Canadians at a time of rising unemployment. However, these changes may eventually intensify dysfunctions in the Canadian labour market.

With an overall unemployment rate of 6.6 per cent and a youth unemployment rate of 13.6 per cent alongside a worsening housing crisis, these policies reflect growing pressures.

However, blaming newcomers — particularly international students and their spouses — for job shortages overlooks deeper structural issues in the labour market. Canada’s labour market struggles are not caused by the number of newcomers, but by systemic issues such as underemployment and skills-job mismatches.

Unemployment and underemployment

While rising unemployment is affecting everyone, newcomers have been hit especially hard. In 2024, the unemployment rate for immigrants hit 11 per cent — more than double the 5.6 per cent rate for Canadian-born workers.

Underemployment is also a persistent issue for immigrants. In 2021, only 44 per cent of immigrants who had arrived in Canada within the previous decade were employed in jobs matching their education level, compared to 64 per cent of Canadian-born workers aged 25 to 34.

The over-education rate — the proportion of university graduates working in jobs for which they are over-qualified despite holding a bachelor’s degree or higher — was 26.7 per cent for immigrants, more than double the 10.9 per cent rate for Canadian-born workers in 2021.

Immigrants, particularly those with foreign credentials, are significantly more likely to experience these job-education mismatches compared to Canadian-born workers.

Approximately two thirds of recent immigrants held a degree from a foreign institution. The over-education rate for these immigrants was 24 per cent higher than that of younger Canadian-born workers.

Under-employment experienced by many newcomers is largely driven by employers favouring Canadian experience — despite such preferences being illegal in Ontario — and relying on referral networks, which often disadvantage newcomers.

Hiring managers frequently undervalue international credentials, even when assessed by organizations like World Education Services. Many employers struggle to assess foreign work experience. Some also perceive a lack of familiarity with Canadian workplace norms as a hiring risk.

Ultimately, hiring managers tend to choose the less risky option, as a bad hire can reflect poorly on them. An exceptional hire, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily bring them equivalent rewards.

International experience is undervalued

International graduates with Canadian degrees generally achieve better labour market outcomes than those educated entirely overseas, experiencing higher earnings and improved job matches.

However, many still face significant barriers, primarily due to employers’ preference for specific Canadian experience and biases in assessing their skills.

Although many international students (277,400 in 2018) gain Canadian work experience during their studies and develop soft skills — often in low-paying, customer-facing roles such as accommodation and food services, retail, hospitality or tourism — this experience is often dismissed as irrelevant to professional roles.

This creates a paradox: employers require Canadian experience for entry-level positions in their field, yet without prior experience, graduates struggle to get hired in the first place.

In addition, employers often lack clarity about international graduates’ visa statuses, work permit durations and future stays in Canada. Constantly changing policies exacerbate this confusion, deterring employers from hiring.

A path forward

Canada’s long-term competitiveness is hindered not by immigration, but by systemic labour market discrimination and inefficiencies that prevent skilled newcomers from fully contributing to the economy.

Eliminating biases related to Canadian work experience and soft skills is key to ensuring newcomers can find fair work. The lack of recognition of foreign talent has a detrimental effect on the Canadian economy by under-utilizing valuable human capital.

To build a more inclusive labour market, a credential recognition system should support employers in assessing transferable skills and experience to mitigate perceived hiring risks related to immigrants.

For international students, enhanced career services at educational institutions are critical. Strengthening partnerships between universities, colleges and employers can expand internships, co-op placements and mentorship programs, providing students with relevant Canadian work experience before graduation.

Such collaboration is also key to implementing employer education initiatives that address misconceptions about hiring international graduates and highlight their contributions to the workforce.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can also play a role in reducing hiring biases and improving job matching for new immigrants and international graduates. Our recent report, which gathered insight from civil society, the private sector and academia, highlights the following AI-driven solutions:

• Tools like Toronto Metropolitan University’s AI resume builder, Mogul AI, and Knockri can help match skills to roles, neutralize hiring bias and promote equity.
• Wage subsidies and AI tools can encourage equitable hiring, while AI-powered programs can help human resources recognize and reduce biases.
• Tools like the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council Mentoring Partnership, can connect newcomers with mentors, track their skills and match them to employer needs.

Harnessing AI-driven solutions, alongside policy reforms and stronger employer engagement, can help break down hiring barriers so Canada can fully benefit from the skills and expertise of its immigrant workforce.

The post Canadian immigrants are overqualified and underemployed — reforms must address this appeared first on TMU Research & Innovation Blog.

While international student graduates earn more than immigrants educated abroad, they remain disadvantaged relative to Canadian-born graduates. (Pexels/ Pavel Danilyuk)

For the first time in nearly 30 years, a majority of Canadians believe there is too much immigration, with international students becoming a focal point of public scrutiny.

A 2024 survey by the Environics Institute showed that only 27 per cent of Canadians view international post-secondary students as a high priority among immigration categories. International students are often portrayed as both exploited and fraudulent and blamed for housing shortages and strained infrastructure.

In January 2024, the federal government responded by reducing international student permits by 35 per cent. It also restricted the Post-Graduation Work Permit Program to limit the number of students eligible to work after graduation. In September, further cuts were announced for 2025 and 2026, reflecting growing political pressure to address public concerns.

The government’s recent caps and cuts may ease public concerns about housing and infrastructure. But these risk harming Canada’s reputation as a welcoming destination for global talent. Policies need to find a balance, valuing students not just as economic contributors but as individuals with dreams and resilience.

This requires acknowledging that international students’ experiences vary widely by field of study, level of education, connections in Canada and family resources. Now more than ever, it is essential to understand the diverse experiences of international students, including those of recent university graduates. Treating all international students as a monolith misses their unique challenges and opportunities.

Unique challenges

International students face unique challenges not only during their studies, but also after graduation. Those who manage to attain permanent resident status are confronted with significant hurdles in the labour market.

Research shows that while international student graduates earn more than immigrants educated abroad, they remain disadvantaged in the labour market relative to Canadian-born graduates.

The public debate tends to focus on college students. International university students, despite being the majority of international students in Canada, are either lumped in with their college counterparts or overlooked altogether.

But international university students are different from their college counterparts. Universities typically have more challenging entry requirements, including higher academic standards, more expensive tuition fees and longer degree programs.

However, according to Statistics Canada, international college graduates tend to achieve better early earnings outcomes relative to Canadian-born graduates. International university graduates face larger initial earnings gaps, but these gaps narrow over time. International college and university students have distinct journeys that warrant separate examination.

Complex migration journeys

A recent working paper I authored with colleagues focuses on the complex migration journeys of international graduates from Canadian universities, capturing the diverse factors that shape their experiences and decisions.

We conducted 36 in-depth interviews between July 2022 and April 2023 with international graduates from Canadian publicly funded universities who held post-graduation work permits. Participants, recruited through alumni groups and networks, completed bachelor’s, master’s, professional or doctoral degrees across diverse fields, including film production, business and engineering. They represented 23 countries, with most from Iran, China and India. The majority had attained permanent residency and were living in Canada, while 10 had left after graduation.

Interviewees described paths influenced by personal goals, systemic barriers and shifting opportunities. Many said they felt compelled to accept unpaid internships or other exploitative jobs to gain Canadian experience. We heard about daily interactions, particularly in service-oriented jobs, where disrespectful and discriminatory behaviours from customers towards employees with foreign accents, or racialized people, were common.

Fluid journeys, changing circumstances

Participants in our study described their migration journeys as fluid, not linear, shaped by changing circumstances.

For some, studying in Canada was part of a broader strategy to position them to pursue opportunities in different countries as they arose. For others, financial or legal barriers limited their options, leaving them unable to depart Canada even when they would prefer to. Their stories highlight the uncertain and constantly fluctuating nature of international student migration.

Understanding the experiences of international university students requires a framework that combines aspirations and capabilities. Aspirations reflect students’ personal and family goals, shaped by culture and societal expectations. Capabilities include the resources and opportunities — such as finances, education, skills and host country conditions that enable them to pursue these goals. Together, these factors determine what students aim for and what they can realistically achieve.

Privileges and precarity

Some interviewees arrived in Canada with financial resources and family support, allowing them to manage the high costs of education and living expenses. Others, however, took on substantial debt to finance their studies, reflecting their willingness to invest in future opportunities despite economic risk. While privilege granted access to education, and the potential for permanent residency status, their success was often constrained by precarity, including financial instability, cultural adjustment challenges, legal uncertainties and discrimination.

While students’ advantages can foster success, barriers — including unpredictable immigration systems, lack of professional networks, limited opportunities to gain relevant Canadian work experience and discriminatory treatment — often undermine them. Recognizing this tension is essential to understanding the varied experiences of international students in Canada.

Collaboration needed

Solving these challenges requires collaboration across education, immigration and employment systems. Universities must provide better support, such as work-integrated learning opportunities that connect education to careers. Immigration policies must become more transparent and predictable. Employers need to recognize their role in addressing hiring barriers and creating pathways for international graduates to gain meaningful work experience.

Finally, appropriate settlement services are key to helping international students build long-term futures in Canada. Many of our interviewees started their journeys excited to study, settle and eventually become part of Canadian society.

But along the way, barriers like precarious work, limited career options and immigration challenges often left them disillusioned, even after getting permanent residency. With the right supports, these graduates could navigate those hurdles more easily and stay engaged in their goals — finding meaningful work, putting down roots and contributing to their communities for the long term.

This is a pivotal moment to rethink how Canada views and supports international students. Without adequate policies and services to support their long-term success, many are at risk of leaving Canada, taking their skills, education and potential economic contributions elsewhere.

Ensuring that these graduates feel valued and supported is essential for retaining talent and strengthening Canada’s competitive position in the global race for skilled workers.

The post International university grads speak about aspirations and barriers appeared first on TMU Research & Innovation Blog.

In response to United States President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports and his escalating hostile rhetoric, Canada and its allies must urgently explore new international trade strategies. Trump’s proposed tariffs could reduce trade and hurt the economy if left unchecked.

The World Trade Organization and its members have an opportunity to counter potential adverse effects of forthcoming U.S. policies by diversifying trade with other countries and increasing international trade through the circular economy.

A circular economy requires that a variety of stakeholders — consumers, businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations, and academia, among others — co-operate to transition away from a linear economy (buy, use, throw away), and, instead, repurpose materials and energy.

Building a circular economy is critical because wasted materials and energy not only damage the environment, but are also growing increasingly scarce and expensive. My recent study examines whether higher rates of industrial circularity can increase a nation’s trade.

To address these economic, security and environmental issues, industries must prioritize the development of circular systems. The future of our economic security and natural environment requires a cross-sector effort to advance circularity.

Increasing global trade

One of the most conspicuous examples of waste’s impact is the five ocean garbage patches — massive, floating islands of debris. In developed countries, municipal services remove trash from sight, making it easy to forget its environmental consequences. However, many developed countries — including Canada — export their waste to developing countries that have less capacity to deal with the issue.

Sometimes it takes the actions of other countries to put pressure on developed countries to change. When China restricted imports on certain types of waste, developed countries had to figure out how to deal with their own waste, rather than exporting it. This has included improved recycling, but it also created opportunities for business innovation.

Making waste tradeable requires processing and innovation to repurpose materials into usable goods. The circular economy, therefore, presents an opportunity for the trade of new, more environmentally friendly products to consumers.

Increasing global trade by using waste instead of throwing it away also offers openings for emerging and developing economies to participate in more international trade. They can build new businesses that take advantage of circular international business opportunities. Now more than ever, emerging and developing economies need more sources of income and employment.

The circular economy also stimulates business activity by encouraging collaboration between organizations, resulting in the creation of new companies. It will create employment opportunities while saving materials and energy.

Circularity and international trade

Europe has taken the lead in advancing the circular economy as part of the European Green Deal. Italy stands out as a noteworthy example.

Italian legislation has supported the development of eco-industrial parks, where companies collaborate locally on sustainable business practices, such as selling material outputs to each other to reduce waste.

Italy has also developed research, clean production, distribution, and post-consumption waste projects to embed circularity into its economy. For example, Italy encouraged the use of recycled and compostable materials in packaging and products through corporate tax credits while taxing virgin materials in construction.

Even Italy’s fashion industry is involved, with research initiatives like Circular Threads targeting Northern Italy’s textile sector. Consumer groups have signalled their support through the Circular Consumption Charter, which is backed by 18 Italian consumer associations.

However, European companies still need clearer economic information that connects investing in circular business models with tangible financial benefits. This is where my recent study comes in.

Circular economy boosts trade

Using several years of data from all 27 European Union countries, my study found a clear connection between circular material use and international exports of the largest types of waste trade — metals, plastics and chemicals.

The EU tracks annual circular material use rates by country. My analyses showed that across material types, higher national circularity drives international trade in waste and scrap. In other words, countries with higher circularity rates engaged in more international trade.

This direct link highlights the potential for firms to invest in the business of the circular economy. Once this fact is understood, then the international market opportunities await.

But what is the best way to support the development of circularity across industries? Research has debated whether policies or research and innovation are most effective tools for change.

Building a circular economy

My study found that circular economic policies, research and innovation — separately and combined — significantly improve countries’ industrial circular capabilities. Among these measures, stringent environmental policies that impose costs on polluting proved particularly effective, similar to how carbon taxes work.

My study was made possible by the European Union’s commitment to providing publicly available data on circularity across member states. This level of co-operation is a model all nations would benefit from. Cross-sector partnerships have also resulted in the creation of successful eco-industrial parks.

Establishing more of these hubs would be a tremendous step forward and enable more circular trade across borders. Canada is already a leader in this space, with examples like Burnside Industrial Park in Halifax.

Established in the 1970s and supported by Dalhousie University’s Eco-efficiency Centre, this park is one of the largest in northeastern North America. It hosts roughly 2,000 enterprises and 30,000 employees. Collaborative partnerships at the park have included waste exchange in wooden pallets, metals and packaging.

Burnside Park is just one of many examples of how Canada can build its economic security through industrial ecology. However, to reduce dependence on the U.S., Canada needs its businesses and eco-industrial parks to diversify into international markets. Europe has become a critical partner with initiatives like the EU’s Horizon Europe program helping to make international connections.

Globally, the World Trade Organization could serve as an inclusive forum to expand discussions and initiatives aimed at furthering the circular economy to distribute wealth, improve the environment and reduce tensions on an international level.

Although consumers may push for a circular economy, firms need strong economic incentives to invest in change. My research provides strong evidence that lucrative international markets reward business investment in circularity. In the face of potential international economic instability, Canada and its allies have incentives to grow and diversify the global economy through circular economy international trade.

The post A sustainable, circular economy could counter Trump’s tariffs while strengthening international trade appeared first on TMU Research & Innovation Blog.

Some workplaces in the hospitality industry are especially toxic, resulting in employees experiencing burnout and mental health issues. (Shutterstock)

It’s summer and that means high season and busy times for the tourism sector. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, over 285 million tourists travelled internationally from January to March 2024, an increase of about 20 per cent compared to 2023.

Canada is nearing its 2019 levels of international tourist arrivals, indicating the sector’s recovery from the pandemic. However, the situation isn’t as good as it appears: the tourism and hospitality industry is experiencing a worker shortage worldwide.

This labour gap threatens tourism destinations, like Canada, by impacting service quality and potentially damaging the reputation and desirability of hospitality brands.

Employers are scrambling to find enough staff to deliver quality services to summer visitors. Traditionally, employers have relied on students looking for summer jobs and temporary foreign workers. In some places, like Alberta, the industry has even successfully lobbied for dedicated immigration streams to fill this gap.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has made this situation more visible, the labour shortage is not new and has deep roots. Hospitality companies now face difficulties in attracting and retaining talent.

Destructive leadership

Jobs in the hospitality industry often involve frequent shift changes, low pay, lack of recognition, emotional labour and inconvenient working hours, which sometimes results in occupational stigma.

On top of that, some workplaces are especially toxic, resulting in employees experiencing burnout and mental health issues. Researchers found that chefs — an integral part of the hospital industry — in Australia and New Zealand are struggling with their mental health and many wish to leave the industry.

Destructive leadership is further compounding these challenges. Destructive leadership is an umbrella term that can be defined in several ways, including abusive supervision, petty tyranny, and toxic, despotic, corrupt or narcissistic leadership, among others.

Abusive supervision, for example, is a form of harassment in which a supervisor shows hostile verbal and non-verbal behaviours towards their subordinates, such as humiliation, lying to or threatening them, or outright ignoring them. Managers displaying these behaviours negatively impact both businesses and their employees.

Despotic leadership is considered the most destructive and selfish leadership style. It is characterized by authoritarian, dominant and self-serving personal behaviours. Despotic leaders show a lack of morality, engage in fraudulent behaviours, and manipulate and exploit employees for personal gain.

A recent study conducted among Spanish hotel workers demonstrated the negative effects of abusive supervision and despotic leadership on employee retention.

The ‘dark triad’ and leadership

Destructive leadership is closely linked to a concept called dark leadership, which concerns the psychological mindset of destructive leaders. Dark leadership involves actions that can harm, or intend to harm, an organization and its employees. This can include encouraging staff to pursue goals that conflict with the organization’s interests, or hurting or disrespecting employees.

Certain personal factors, such as negative or “dark” personality traits — known as the “dark triad” of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy — can explain the emergence and impact of destructive leadership.

Situational factors within an organization’s internal and external environments, such as high-pressure work conditions or poor organizational culture, also play a role. A conducive environment, a destructive leader and susceptible followers are known as the “toxic triangle.”

Bad leadership often results from a lack of hard and soft skill competencies. Research shows soft skills like emotional intelligence are crucial for effective leadership.

Dark leadership develops over time and can lead to negative outcomes that compromise the quality of life or the satisfaction of both internal stakeholders, like employees and managers, and external stakeholders, like customers.

What happens internally within an organization ultimately permeates the service provided to the customer. Addressing internal issues, including destructive leadership, is necessary to ensuring high-quality service and maintaining a positive reputation in the industry.

Creating positive workplaces

To remain competitive, hospitality companies must establish more attractive work environments by fostering positive workplace culture and enticing employees to work. This is needed to attract and retain a new generation of workers. For young people, fairness in treatment and compensation at work is very important.

Human resource departments can play a crucial role in identifying and eradicating toxic behaviours by superiors. Empowering employees, establishing clear codes of conduct, and developing supervisor evaluation systems where employees can express their opinions freely without fear of reprisal can limit the influence of toxic leaders.

Studying and discussing bad organizational behaviours and leadership is difficult for industry leaders and managers. It requires courage and a willingness to look at oneself in the mirror.

Some researchers have addressed this by studying how workers’ perceptions of their managers’ behaviours impact their decision to leave a company, or the industry altogether. Others demonstrate the positive value of inclusive leadership.

It’s essential to investigate how negative job experiences cause junior employees to leave the industry to prevent a further decline in Canadian tourism and hospitality programs. The industry’s future is at stake. It’s time for tourism and hospitality professionals to make their sector more attractive to young Canadians.

The post ‘Dark leadership’ is a threat to Canada’s tourism industry appeared first on TMU Research & Innovation Blog.

Preference for tax-free savings accounts may be due, in part, to a psychological bias for the phrase “tax-free.” (Shutterstock)

While a rose by any other name may smell as sweet, Shakespeare’s famous maxim does not hold up when talking about tax-sheltered savings plans. Our new research finds that people are more likely to choose a plan that has the words “tax-free” in the title, regardless of the details in fine print.

Canada has two main tax-sheltered savings plans that encourage people to put money away for retirement and other expenses. Since being introduced in 2009, the tax-free savings account (TFSA) has become far more popular than the registered retirement savings plan (RRSP).

In our paper in the Canadian Tax Journal, we show that preference for TFSAs may be due, in part, to a psychological bias for the phrase “tax-free.”

These two words are used as a mental shortcut — a heuristic — that individuals sometimes rely on when choosing a tax-sheltered savings plan. People often use these heuristic cues when navigating complex situations because the alternative — a process known as “systematic processing” — requires more careful scrutiny and effort.

If the information being considered is either overwhelmingly ambiguous or extensive, heuristic cues often win out, which suppresses systematic processing. This suppression of systematic processing can lead individuals to make sub-optimal financial decisions, as they might overlook critical details and benefits of alternative savings plans.

Tax-deferred vs. tax-pre-paid

The Canadian government introduced the RRSP in 1957 to encourage people to save for their retirement. It can be described as a tax-deferred account because contributions receive a tax deduction, whereas withdrawals are taxed.

The TFSA can be described as a tax-prepaid account because contributions are made with after-tax amounts and withdrawals are not taxed. Investment income is not taxed in either plan, which means that interest earned is tax-free for both the TFSA and RRSP.

An optimal financial strategy would use both of these tax-sheltered savings plans. The TFSA is ideal for most people for short-term savings, while the RRSP usually makes sense for long-term savings. This is because RRSP contributions are tax deductible at a person’s current tax rate, and taxes can be paid at withdrawal, which is usually at a much lower tax rate if the person is retired.

But the TFSA has out-paced the RRSP in what is known as the “crowding-out effect.” In fact, since 2013, total TFSA contributions have far surpassed total RRSP contributions. Canadians’ savings in TFSAs, while fiscally wise, may come at the expense of longer-term savings if people forego the RRSP.

Favouring the favourable heuristic cue

Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States are the only countries with both tax-deferred and tax-prepaid plans. However, Canada is the sole country of the three with a favourable heuristic cue in one of the titles.

This provided a natural laboratory for us to test the hypothesis that, all else being equal, people are more likely to choose a plan with the phrase “tax-free” in its name.

To test this hypothesis, we conducted three social psychology experiments where we asked participants to choose between a “tax-free account” or a “retirement savings account.” In total, we recruited 1,132 participants from Canada and 184 from the U.K.

Different groups of participants had the names paired with brief or longer descriptions that were either accurate or inaccurate. This allowed participants to engage in either heuristic or systematic processing, or both simultaneously.

When the savings plan name included “tax-free,” significantly more participants chose that plan compared to the alternative, regardless of what the plan description said. Whether the plan offered short-term or long-term savings, people generally chose the option with “tax-free” in its name.

In all three experiments, participants used the heuristic to guide their choice, rather than scrutinize the plan information.

Individual and systemic implications

Our research provides new and robust evidence on how decisions on tax-sheltered savings plans may be biased because of a tax-aversion heuristic. This bias may have both individual and broader implications.

An individual’s decision about saving money can have long-term implications for their retirement and personal financial situation. From an economic perspective, decisions about how your savings will reduce total taxes paid over your lifetime should be based on current and predicted future marginal tax rates, not heuristics.

Substituting short- to intermediate-term savings in TFSAs for long-term savings in RRSPs may increase Canadians’ financial insecurity in retirement and ultimately increase their reliance on public pensions and other government assistance.

On a broader scale, this bias for a “tax-free” plan could impede the government from achieving its tax policy objectives. If people disproportionately choose short-term savings because of the appealing “tax-free” heuristic in the TFSA name, and forego long-term savings because the RRSP lacks this heuristic cue, these folks may actually end up paying more in taxes. This is because, RRSP contributions are tax-deductible, whereas TFSA contributions are not.

Although financial education and advice may help individuals maximize their economic potential, our research shows that providing more information about a tax-sheltered savings plan may not overcome a heuristic bias.

The sweet allure of “tax-free” in a title suggests governments should avoid choosing names for tax-sheltered savings plans that contain a heuristic cue, whether it be favourable or unfavourable.

The post The ‘tax-free trap’: How a simple phrase skews Canadians’ savings choices appeared first on TMU Research & Innovation Blog.

Written by Lucas Dufour, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Meena Andiappan, McMaster University. Originally published in The Conversation. 

New hires shouldn’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd, according to recent research. (Shutterstock)

Starting a new job can be daunting. New employees are often worried about how they should behave at work and what they should do when they join a new company.

Workers generally have a lot to learn in terms of company policies, procedures and regulations — not to mention the unwritten rules and norms that are often critical for success. All of this can be overwhelming.

New employees are often uncomfortable asking questions of their supervisors and peers for fear of being viewed as ignorant or incompetent.

Compounding this issue is the fact that, in recent years, remote work has reduced the number of face-to-face interactions employees have. These interactions are important for understanding workplace norms and expectations. Employees who don’t experience them, or have fewer of these experiences, are put at a disadvantage.

All these hurdles can leave new employees feeling isolated and unsure about how to navigate their new environment effectively.

Supervisors are crucial to success

When individuals start a new job, the first six months they spend at a new firm — also called the “socialization phase” — are absolutely crucial.

Studies suggest this period often determines how quickly employees learn how to do their job, how well they perform, their job satisfaction and, ultimately, how long they will stay at the organization.

Despite recent research showing the crucial impact of supervisors in the success of new employees’ onboarding, newcomers are often left on their own to figure out how they can get the attention and support they need to succeed in their new environment.

Given these barriers, many workers end up adopting a passive approach to fitting in and tend to do exactly — and only — what they are told to do. However, our recent research demonstrates that supervisors expect newcomers to take a proactive attitude, rather than a passive one, if they want support.

Don’t be afraid to stand out

Our research suggests that supervisors expect newcomers to challenge the organization’s functioning and to stand out, rather than solely trying to adjust their behaviours and not disturb the status quo.

Supervisors expected to see newcomers manifest this behaviour through two particular methods: first, by proposing useful new ideas and second, by highlighting their achievements.

In our study of 325 employees and supervisors across a wide range of industries and company size, we consistently found that newcomers were expected to provide innovative ideas. However, it was the quality of the idea and its feasibility, rather than the sheer number of ideas, that was important.

We found that supervisors responded positively when new employees proposed ideas they considered relevant and achievable. Supervisors don’t want newcomers to revolutionize everything, but to provide a new lens. For example, newcomers suggested ways to use digital marketing to target new customer segments, while others found new ways to automate employee expense reimbursement processes.

Supervisors were much more likely to help newcomers to implement these kinds of ideas. Subsequently, supervisors were also more likely to support these new hires throughout the socialization process.

Communicating accomplishments

Another important finding for newcomers was the importance of communicating their accomplishments. Supervisors generally have limited time and attention to devote to new employees. In order to get credit for their work and gain visibility, newcomers did best when they actively highlighted their accomplishments to their superiors.

For example, in our study, successful newcomers gained their manager’s attention by treating each of their workplace “wins” (for example, securing a new client, finishing a project ahead of deadline) as an opportunity to communicate their accomplishments. Newcomers shared this news with their managers either through email or, ideally, through in-person conversations.

Our study found that newcomers who engage in feasible idea generation and self-promotion were not only more likely to receive supervisor support, but were also more likely to be offered a permanent position.

Passivity can be detrimental

Lastly, we also found that being passive not only prevents newcomers from gaining helpful supervisor support, but also spurs additional detrimental consequences.

Interestingly, supervisors often viewed newcomers who failed to promote themselves as needing excessive guidance. However, the guidance provided by supervisors in this case tended to be overly directive. Ironically this over-support resulted in worse socialization outcomes: lower performance, higher stress and lower overall job satisfaction for the new employee.

Taken together, our findings suggest that new hires shouldn’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd — speaking up about actionable ideas and their own value to the firm — which can help draw in the right kind of support to ensure their future career success.

While starting a new job can be intimidating, our research offers suggestions that can alleviate some of the anxiety of being a newcomer and set new employees up for success in their new workplaces.

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