Welcome to Canada: Your New Salary Just Dropped 10.6% – Biggest Crash in 33 Years

Hey, Canada Just Dropped Some Eye-Opening Numbers on What New Immigrants Actually Earn When They Land

If you’ve been following the immigration conversation in Canada, you probably already know we bring in a ton of people every year (like, 400,000–500,000 permanent residents lately). Everyone loves to talk about how “skilled” they are, how many PhDs and engineers we’re getting, blah blah blah. But StatsCan just hit us with the cold, hard cash reality: the real median entry wage for new immigrants took its biggest single-year dive since 1991.

Let’s break it down, coffee-in-hand style.

The Big Number

In 2023, the median entry wage for economic principal applicants (the main people we select, not their spouses or kids) was $44,200 in 2023 constant dollars.

That’s a 10.6% drop from 2022’s $49,400.

To give you a sense of how wild that is:

• Biggest one-year drop in over three decades
• Wipes out pretty much all the gains we saw from 2020 to 2022
• Still higher than the 2015–2019 average (~$39,000–$41,000), so it’s not like we’re back to Harper-era lows… but the trend reversed hard.

Who Got Hit the Hardest?

• Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) immigrants: down 13.8% in real wages. A lot of these folks come in on lower-wage job offers in healthcare support, trucking, food processing, etc. When provinces race to fill labor shortages, wages get suppressed.
• Express Entry (Federal Skilled Worker/CEC): actually held up better, “only” down about 5–6%. These are the points-grid superstars everyone brags about.
• Men vs Women: Immigrant women saw a slightly bigger drop (11.2%) than men (9.9%). Classic.
• Age 25–34 cohort: the sharpest fall. Basically the prime “I just finished my master’s in Canada, now gimme a job” crowd.

Why Did This Happen?

• Inflation ate the gains – Nominal wages went up a bit, but after you adjust for 2023’s still-high inflation, real purchasing power got smoked.
• Way more people in lower-wage streams – In 2021–2023 we leaned hard into PNP and essential-worker pathways (caregivers, agri-workers, etc.). Those jobs pay less than the classic IT/engineering Express Entry roles we used to dominate with.
• International students transitioning to PR – A huge chunk of the 2023 cohort studied in Canada first, often worked part-time at $15–$20/hr, then got PR through CEC with that same wage on their record. Boom, entry wage anchored low.
• Labor market was cooling – By late 2022/early 2023, tech layoffs were real, housing construction slowed, and employers suddenly had more bargaining power.

The “But Wait, It’s Still Better Than Before” Caveat

Before anyone panics: today’s immigrant is still earning roughly 15–20% more in real terms than someone who landed in 2016–2017. So the long-term trend is still up. It’s just that the rocket ride from 2020–2022 ran out of fuel and we hit some turbulence in 2023.

What People Are Saying

Immigration advocates: “This is what happens when you prioritize quantity over quality and let wages get suppressed in ‘essential’ jobs.”
Business groups: “Lower entry wages = we can hire the workers we desperately need without going bankrupt.”
Bottom Line

In Canada, immigrant’s earnings catch up to Canadian-born levels after about 10–15 years, but the “land and instantly crush it” story took a serious reality check in 2023.

Welcome to Canada, here’s your $44,200 (before tax). Rent is $2,400 a month in most cities. Good luck!