Many newcomers have resumes chock full of education, experience and ambition. But they’re not getting jobs, let alone interviews. Unless Atlantic Canadian employers and policymakers make fixes, they’ll squander a once-in-a-generation growth opportunity.

The Savchuks wanted to be by the water. When the family left Ukraine, Atlantic Canada was their preferred destination, and St. John’s won out as their home. “When we moved here, we were surprised,” says Artem Savchuk, a trained software developer. “All these houses, all these spaces, fresh air.” He was used to traffic jams in Odessa, where he, his wife and two young children lived on the Black Sea, in a densely populated, 1.2 million-resident port city.

Savchuk, like many in his sector in Ukraine, worked “for American, Canadian or European companies as contractors or outsource staff,” he says. In his case, it was a large American company with international offices. It was the sort of employment background, coupled with his education and other experience, that should have teed him up for a job in his field in Canada.

The family arrived in February 2024, about two years after Russian forces invaded the nation. Unable to sell their Odessa home, they left it in his mother’s care. With only about $1,000 Canadian dollars to their name, it was necessary for them to find work as soon as possible.

Instead of working in his chosen trade where the local median wage is $43.75 an hour, Savchuk started shoveling snow for minimum wage. For the last two years, he’s worked as a dishwasher. “Maybe I chose the wrong place for my work.”

But instead of working in his chosen trade where the local median wage is $43.75 an hour, Savchuk started shoveling snow for minimum wage. For the last two years, he’s worked as a dishwasher. It’s not the life in Canada he envisioned.

“I understand there are not so many companies in St. John’s and Newfoundland for IT,” he says, estimating that he’s applied for a few hundred jobs, local and remote, over the past two-plus years but received only a handful of interviews. “Maybe I chose the wrong place for my work.”

It’s been hard to attract and retain new residents to Atlantic Canada for generations. Yet between 2019 and 2025, according to Public Policy Forum, the region added 260,000 residents—the majority of whom came from outside Canada. It’s the sort of growth the provincial governments needed to fight back against an aging population, grow the tax base and fill critical workplace gaps. The new residents can help increase regional productivity, expand the economy and drive innovation.

But we’re experiencing growing pains, and newcomers to Canada are feeling them most acutely. In 2023, 32,000 immigrants flocked to the region, compared to 5,800 a decade earlier. They were attracted by bold government promises that better, richer lives awaited in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Yet, they aren’t planting roots. Newcomers still continue to leave at higher rates than other parts of the country, often destined for major economic centres. StatsCan reports that between 46.7 and 64.3 per cent of immigrants admitted in 2022 still lived in Atlantic Canada one year later—the lowest rates nationwide, and a decline from previous retention levels.

A principal challenge is getting them into the workforce in roles that match their education and experience, and with salaries that keep their households steady amid a cost-of-living crisis. It’s hard for jobseekers across the board, but several Canadian surveys identify over-qualification as a top issue newcomers experience with the job market. StatsCan reports a third of recent immigrants aged 25 to 54 are working in jobs that don’t match their qualifications, earning less than would be expected by Canadian residents with similar education and experience. The over-qualification gap closes to rates similar to Canadian-born workers only a decade after newcomers become permanent residents. Few will stick around Atlantic Canada that long to try to make it work.

Continue reading this story: click below to login/subscribe

Login or Subscribe