Labour market outcomes of journeypersons designated as visible minorities

Summary

Using data from Statistics Canada’s Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP), this study examines populations designated as visible minorities in the skilled trades. The labour market outcomes, one year after certification, of journeypersons designated as visible minorities, who responded to the 2016 Census of Population and received certificates in the skilled trades between 2008 and 2017, were compared with the outcomes of journeypersons who are not visible minorities.

• All groups designated as a visible minority were under-represented in the journeypersons population when compared to the Canadian population as a whole. However, the degrees of under-representation varied across population groups. For both men and women, compared to other designated groups, Latin Americans were less under-represented, and Chinese were more under-represented.
• One year after certification, journeypersons in most designated groups had lower median employment incomes than those who were not a visible minority. However, the labour market outcomes varied substantially across population groups.
• Trades in which visible minority journeypersons certified compared to non-visible minorities showed differences. For men, automotive service technician was more common in all designated groups than in non-visible minorities. Similarly, cook was also more common in most designated groups, with the exception of Black men.
• Most visible minority journeypersons received their certificates in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. Compared to non-visible minority journeypersons, a larger proportion was certified in Ontario, whereas Quebec was under-represented.
• For men, about the half of the differences in median employment incomes between visible minority and non-visible minority journeypersons could be explained by different characteristics, such as trade, geography, and the mode of certification. However, this was not the case for women.

Introduction

Despite policies aimed at supporting diversity and inclusion in Canada, populations designated as visible minorities^Note (visible minorities) tend to have lower socioeconomic status than those who are not designated as such (non-visible minority).^Note Reported experiences of discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movements in Canada and other countries have highlighted the importance of understanding the challenges Black people, and visible minorities in general, are facing in Canada.^Note

In addition, there are growing concerns about a shortage of skilled tradespeople in the near future due to an ageing population.^Note Since most of Canada’s population growth comes from immigration, and as most visible minorities are immigrants, examining the representation of visible minorities in the skilled trades and how well they are faring in the labour market, can provide important insights for researchers and policymakers alike.^Note

There is an extensive literature examining education and labour market outcomes of immigrants and visible minorities. Studies find that visible minorities have diverse experience and challenges in Canada depending on their ethnic background.^Note Despite differences among them, in general, visible minorities had poorer labour market outcomes compared to non-visible minorities, although many of them had higher educational attainments.^Note

However, the majority of the literature on visible minorities and immigrants focuses on whether students attended or graduated college or university for post-secondary education and their labour market outcomes after graduation. Little is known for those who pursue careers in the skilled trades, partly due to a lack of appropriate data sources.^Note

This study expands the literature by analyzing labour market outcomes of recently certified visible minority journeypersons based on data from the Statistics Canada’s Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP).^Note  The ELMLP allows the combination of anonymized information from the Registered Apprenticeship Information System (RAIS) and the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS), with anonymized information from other administrative datasets, including the 2016 Census of Population (2016 Census).

The large size of the dataset enables the examination of outcomes across different population groups as well as visible minorities as a whole.

Based on previous findings that noted substantially different experiences and choices between men and women in the skilled trades, the analysis is conducted for men and women separately.^Note

The first part of this study compares the population of journeypersons to the general Canadian population regarding persons designated as visible minorities. Their representation in the population of journeypersons who responded to the 2016 Census and certified between 2008 and 2017 is compared with the representation in the population of 2016 Census as a whole. In the second part, labour market outcomes and characteristics of visible minority journeypersons were compared against those of non-visible minorities. Across many measures, visible minority journeypersons generally had worse labour market outcomes one year after certification than non-visible minority journeypersons.

However, visible minority journeypersons had different characteristics than non-visible minorities. In the last part of this study, the differences in the employment income of journeypersons were studied using regression models to control for factors associated with incomes such as trades, region and mode of certification.

Fewer visible minorities among recently certified journeypersons than among the Canadian population

In this section, journeypersons who responded to the 2016 Census and received their certificate between 2008 and 2017 were compared with Canadians aged 18 to 54 years (Canadian population), using the data from the 2016 Census.^Note

Using the responses to the population group question in 2016 Census, twelve population groups were designated as visible minority groups. In this study, in order to have reliable estimates, the largest five groups – South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, and Latin American – are studied separately and the remaining groups are aggregated as ‘All other designated groups’ due to smaller number of journeypersons of these groups.^Note

Compared to their representations in the Canadian population, the proportions of all designated groups were lower in the population of journeypersons (Chart 1). The difference varied between men and women and across groups, but the proportions of most designated groups among journeypersons were less than half of that in the Canadian population. For example, more than 6% of 18- to 54-year-old men in Canada in 2016 were South Asian. In contrast, about 2% of journeypersons were South Asian.

Data table for Chart 1



Data table for Chart 1
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 1 South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin
American and All other designated groups, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

		South Asian	Chinese	Black	Filipino	Latin American	All other designated groups
		percent
Men	Canadian population	6.4	4.9	3.7	2.3	1.6	5.6
		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Journeypersons, who certified between 2008 and 2017	2.2	1.5	1.2	0.9	0.9	2.3
		0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1
Women	Canadian population	6.1	5.4	3.9	3.1	1.7	5.8
		0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Journeypersons, who certified between 2008 and 2017	3.4	1.7	2.6	1.3	1.2	5.0
		0.3	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.4
Note: Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval of estimates. Source: Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (Registered Apprenticeship Information System 2008 – 2017 and 2016 Census).

All designated groups were under-represented in the journeyperson population, but the data illustrate varying degrees of under-representation. Compared to their proportions in the Canadian population, South Asian, Chinese, and Black men were particularly less common among journeypersons. In contrast, Latin American men were relatively less under-represented compared to other designated groups.

Visible minority women were also under-represented, but less so than men. Latin American women and women in the “All other designated” groups were well represented among journeypersons, and their proportions in the journeyperson population were close to their proportions within the Canadian population. Similar to men, there were fewer Chinese women certified as journeypersons compared to the proportion in the Canadian population.

The proportion of immigrants among visible minority journeypersons is similar to that of the Canadian population

Among non-visible minorities, the proportion of immigrants was lower in the population of journeypersons than that of the Canadian population, suggesting that non-visible minority immigrants were less likely to pursue a career in the skilled trades than their Canada-born counterparts. To illustrate, immigrants made up about 9% of people who were not visible minorities in the Canadian population, while they made up about 5% of journeypersons of both sexes (Chart 2).^Note

Data table for Chart 2



Data table for Chart 2
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 2 Non-visible
minority, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin
American and All other
designated
groups, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

		Non-visible minority	South Asian	Chinese	Black	Filipino	Latin American	All other designated groups
		percent
Men	Canadian population	9	80	76	66	84	84	78
		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Journeypersons, who certified between 2008 and 2017	5	81	73	67	82	81	76
		0	1	2	3	2	3	2
Women	Canadian population	9	80	81	67	89	86	80
		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Journeypersons, who certified between 2008 and 2017	5	86	74	65	77	85	80
		0	3	5	5	6	5	3
Note: Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval of estimates. Source: Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (Registered Apprenticeship Information System 2008 – 2017 and 2016 Census).

For visible minority men, the proportions are similar in the Canadian population and in the population of journeypersons.^Note Black people had the lowest proportion of immigrants among visible minority population groups (66% in the population and 67% among journeypersons), and Latin Americans had the highest proportion (84% in the population and 81% among journeypersons).

For visible minority women, the proportions showed small differences between the journeyperson population and the Canadian population. The proportions of immigrants were lower among female Filipino and Chinese journeypersons (77% and 74%, respectively) than their general population counterparts (89% and 81%, respectively). In contrast, immigrants were more common among South Asian journeypersons (86%) than South Asian women in general (80%).

Median employment income of visible minority journeypersons was lower than that of non-visible minority journeypersons one year after certification

The labour market outcomes of visible minority journeypersons one year after certification were compared to those of non-visible minority journeypersons using tax data from the T1 Family File (T1FF). It is important to note that the estimates are based on all journeypersons who filed taxes and that some journeypersons might not have worked full-time full-year.^Note There were large variations across population groups, but visible minority journeypersons had lower employment incomes than non-visible minority journeypersons in general. Some of these differences are related to differences in trades they are certified in and other characteristics across population groups, which will be examined in the following sections.

For men, with the exception of Filipino journeypersons^Note , visible minority journeypersons had significantly lower median employment incomes compared to their non-visible minority counterparts (Table 1).^Note One year after certification, South Asian journeypersons had the lowest median incomes of all groups at $51,900, which was about 20% lower than that of non-visible minority journeypersons ($65,600). Of population groups designated as visible minority, Filipino journeypersons had the highest median income at $67,000, followed by Black journeypersons, whose median income was $61,500.

Although the gaps were not as large as those of male journeypersons, similar relationships were found for women.^Note Latin American journeypersons had the lowest median income of all groups at $21,400, and their median income was about 15% lower than non-visible minority journeypersons ($28,300). Similar to men, Filipino female journeypersons had the highest median income ($33,300) of all population groups, including non-visible minority journeypersons.



Visible minority and non-visible minority journeypersons made different trade choices

Visible minority and non-visible minority journeypersons made different choices regarding their trades. Median employment income varies substantially across trades. Also, as journeypersons of different trades work in different industries, other labour market outcomes – such as union membership – are dependent upon trades. These factors may explain some of the differences in the labour market outcomes noted above.

Apprenticeship training and qualification of journeypersons are governed by provincial and territorial authorities in Canada. To help set common standards across trades and facilitate the mobility of skilled workers across Canada, the Canadian Council of Directors of Apprenticeship administers the Interprovincial Standards Red Seal Program. Journeypersons of designated trades (Red Seal trades) who have successfully passed the Red Seal examination receive a Red Seal endorsement on their provincial/territorial trade certificate. The Red Seal, when affixed to a provincial or territorial trade certificate, indicates that a tradesperson has demonstrated the knowledge required for the national standard in that trade.^Note In general, Red Seal trades had higher median incomes than non-Red Seal trades, and journeypersons of Red Seal trades were more mobile than journeypersons of non-Red Seal trades.^Note

For men, visible minority journeypersons were more likely to be certified in a Red Seal trade than non-visible minorities (Chart 3). South Asian (87%) and Chinese (85%) had the highest percentage of journeypersons certified in a Red Seal trade. Considering the Red Seal endorsement make their skills recognizable beyond the jurisdiction of certification, this may play a role in the higher rates of mobility of Chinese male journeypersons, which will be explained more in detail in the proceeding section.

Some trades that were popular for women, such as early childhood educator and IT support associate, are non-Red Seal trades. Consequently, the overall proportions of journeypersons certifying in Red Seal trades were lower for women than men. Black (45%) and Filipino (49%) female journeypersons were significantly less likely to be certified in a Red Seal trade (therefore, more likely to be certified in a non-Red Seal trade) than non-visible minority women (64%).

Data table for Chart 3



Data table for Chart 3
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 3 Non-visible
minority, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin
American and All other
designated
groups, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

	Non-visible minority	South Asian	Chinese	Black	Filipino	Latin American	All other designated groups
	percent
Men	77	87	85	74	81	73	78
	0.3	1.3	1.8	2.3	2.5	2.7	1.5
Women	64	57	62	45	49	59	68
	0.8	4.8	5.1	5.0	7.5	6.8	2.9
Note: Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval of estimates. Source: Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (Registered Apprenticeship Information System 2008 – 2017 and 2016 Census).

In addition, there were some notable differences between visible minorities and non-visible minorities regarding choice of trades (Table 2).

For non-visible minority male journeypersons, carpenter was one of the most popular trades in terms of the number of journeypersons certified in the trade (11%). However, carpentry is a relatively less popular trade among visible minority journeypersons. Few South Asian, Chinese, and Filipino journeypersons were certified as carpenters. The rate varied across groups, from 1% to 5%, but it was far from being the most popular trade for any visible minority group.

In contrast, automotive service technician and cook showed the opposite relationship. These two trades were more popular among most visible minority men than non-visible minorities. About 5% of non-visible minority male journeypersons were automotive service technicians, whereas this figure was 15% for Filipino men, and the trade was most popular trade for them in terms of the number of journeypersons.

Similarly, the percentage of cooks is higher among many population groups than non-visible minority men. Few non-visible minority men were certified cooks (2%), but more than 7% of South Asian journeypersons were.^Note As the median income of cook is lower than other construction-related trades popular among non-visible minority men, a part of the large difference of employment income between visible minority and non-visible minority journeypersons (Table 1) could be explained by the different choices in trade.^Note

Female journeypersons were concentrated in a smaller number of trades than men. Hairstylist was the most popular trade among women in all population groups, including non-visible minority female journeypersons (40% of them were certified hairstylists). Early childhood educator, a non-Red Seal trade available only in Ontario, was more popular among all visible minority groups (9% to 19% across population groups) than among non-visible minorities (4%).The proportion of journeypersons certified as an early childhood educator was particularly high for South Asian (19%) and Black (18%) women. In contrast to visible minority men, there were fewer certified cooks among visible minority women, with the exception of Filipino women (11%).



Unincorporated self-employment was more common among visible minority male journeypersons

Some journeypersons earned a part of employment income from self-employment,^Note and the proportion of those with self-employment (unincorporated) income varied across population groups.^Note

For men, with the exception of Filipino journeypersons, visible minority journeypersons were more likely to report self-employment income than non-visible minorities. About 8% of non-visible minority journeypersons were self-employed comparted to around 12% for most population groups designated as visible minority. Chinese journeypersons had the largest proportion of self-employment (14%), and Filipino journeypersons had the lowest rate (8%).

The overall proportion of self-employed was slightly higher among female journeypersons (11% to 15%, across population groups) than men (8% to 14%). However, there was no significant difference between visible minority female journeypersons (11% to 15%) and non-visible minorities (14%).

Visible minority journeypersons were less likely to work in unionized workplaces

Half of non-visible minority male journeypersons worked in unionized occupations and paid union dues one year after certification (52%). This figure varied across groups, but visible minority journeypersons were less likely to pay union dues, which is consistent with the higher rates of self-employment. In addition, as unionization rates vary across industries, the different trade choices across population groups may be another reason for the difference. Fewer than two out of five (40%) South Asian and Chinese male journeypersons paid union dues. In contrast, Black and Latin American male journeypersons (52%) had similar proportions of those who paid union dues to that of non-visible minorities (52%).

The overall rates of unionization were much lower for female journeypersons. About one in four non-visible minority female journeypersons (25%) paid union dues one year after certification, and the rates were similar for South Asian, Chinese, and Filipino journeypersons. Black journeypersons had the largest proportion of those who paid union dues among female journeypersons (30%), while the figure was the smallest for Latin American female journeypersons (17%).

Similarly, for men, smaller proportions of visible minority journeypersons worked for employers providing registered pension plans. A third of non-visible minority male journeypersons had registered pension plans through employers (33%), higher than the rates for all visible minority population groups (ranging from 13% to 26%).

For women, about 14% of non-visible minority journeypersons had registered pension plans. Black and Filipino female journeypersons were more likely to have such plans (18% and 20%, respectively), whereas South Asian and Latin American journeypersons were less likely (9% and 6%, respectively).

Chinese male journeypersons had the highest rate of interprovincial mobility

Interprovincial mobility is a factor related to income. In general, those who migrate to other provinces tend to have higher incomes compared to those who do not migrate.^Note In addition, facilitating interprovincial mobility of journeypersons has been an important policy goal as concerns about the regional imbalances of skilled tradespeople grow.^Note The mobility of journeypersons is measured by comparing their jurisdiction of certification and their jurisdiction of residence or employment, one year after certification. Journeypersons are considered ‘mobile’ if they were living or working outside the province or territory where they received their certificates, one year later.

Based upon this definition, 13% of Chinese male journeypersons were mobile, the highest rate of interprovincial mobility among all population groups considered in this study, including non-visible minority men, whose rate was 9%. For both men and women, Latin American journeypersons had lower mobility rates than their non-visible minority counterparts.

Most visible minority journeypersons certified in Ontario

In addition to the choice of trades, the geographic distribution of the certification jurisdiction also showed differences between visible minority journeypersons and non-visible minorities (Chart 4).^Note As median employment income varies across provinces and territories – even for the same trade, the geographic distribution can be another factor associated with differences in labour market outcomes.

Data table for Chart 4



Data table for Chart 4
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 4 Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

		Atlantic Canada	Quebec	Ontario	Manitoba	Saskatchewan	Alberta	British Columbia
		percent
Men	Non-visible minority journeypersons	6	34	24	3	4	18	11
		0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Visible minority journeypersons	1	14	44	2	1	21	18
		0	1	1	0	0	1	1
Women	Non-visible minority journeypersons	3	25	39	5	4	17	7
		0	1	1	0	0	1	0
	Visible minority journeypersons	0	6	65	7	1	12	9
		Note x: suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act	1	2	1	1	1	1
x suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements of the Statistics Act Note: Although journeypersons certified in Territories and female visible minority journeypersons in Atlantic Canada were included for analysis in this study, they are not shown in the chart due to the small numbers. Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval of estimates. Source: Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (Registered Apprenticeship Information System 2008 – 2017 and 2016 Census).

For both men and women, the percentages of journeypersons certified in Quebec were lower for visible minority journeypersons than for non-visible minorities. For non-visible minority men, Quebec had the largest number of certifications (34% of male journeypersons) during the ten years studied in this paper, and the second largest for non-visible minority women (25%). In contrast, for visible minority journeypersons, Ontario had the largest number of certification for both men and women (44% and 65%, respectively).^Note

Due to the importance of the trades in the oil and gas industry, Alberta has been well represented among the population of journeypersons compared to the size of its general population, and many journeypersons who were mobile either lived or worked in the province.^Note For both male and female visible minority journeypersons, Alberta was the second largest province in terms of the number of certificates (21% of men and 12% of women) after Ontario. For men, the percentage of journeypersons certified in Alberta was higher among visible minority journeypersons (21%) than non-visible minorities (18%).

Most population groups showed similar distributions across regions, but there were a number of differences (Table A2).  Among Filipino men, there were more journeypersons certified in Alberta (1,340) than in Ontario (990), whereas Ontario had the largest number of certifications among other visible minority groups for both sexes.

In addition, the number of journeypersons certified in Quebec was smaller than those certified in other provinces such as Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia for many visible minority groups. However, Quebec had the second largest number of Black and Latin American journeypersons of both sexes after Ontario.

Many visible minority journeypersons were trade qualifiers

There are two major pathways to become a certified journeyperson in Canada. The first pathway is through the completion of an apprenticeship training program, where apprentices must complete in-class and on-the-job training portions.^Note The apprentice is then eligible to write a qualifying examination and, if successful, becomes a certified journeyperson. The second pathway is for those who already have extensive experience in the trade. This latter group – termed trade qualifiers – can challenge the exam without completing an apprenticeship training program.

In general, trade qualifiers were more common among visible minority journeypersons (Chart 5). About one in four non-visible minority male journeypersons were trade qualifiers (27%), and all population groups designated as visible minorities had higher proportions of trade qualifiers, ranging from 31% to 59%. About three in five South Asian male journeypersons (59%) became certified without completing an apprenticeship training program, the highest percentage of all groups.

Trade qualifiers were less common among women than men. Fewer than one in five non-visible minority female journeypersons received their certificates as trade qualifiers (18%). In contrast, among visible minority women, more than one in four (27%) South Asian female journeypersons were trade qualifiers. The proportions of trade qualifiers among Black (16%) and Filipino (17%) journeypersons were similar to that of non-visible minority women.

Given the fact that most visible minority journeypersons were immigrants (Chart 2), the higher percentage of trade qualifiers among visible minorities suggest that many of them may have received training (and certification) in their home country prior to immigrating to Canada as skilled tradespeople.^Note

Data table for Chart 5



Data table for Chart 5
Table summary
This table displays the results of Data table for Chart 5 Non-visible
minority, South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American and All other
designated
groups, calculated using percent units of measure (appearing as column headers).

	Non-visible minority	South Asian	Chinese	Black	Filipino	Latin American	All other designated groups
	percent
Men	27	59	46	36	36	31	45
	0	2	2	2	3	3	2
Women	18	27	23	16	17	23	30
	1	4	4	3	5	6	3
Note: Error bars represent the 95% confidence interval of estimates. Source: Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (Registered Apprenticeship Information System 2008 – 2017 and 2016 Census).

The different choices in pathways between visible minority and non-visible minority journeypersons might explain some of the differences in incomes after certification (Table 1) as trade qualifiers tend to have lower employment income than apprenticed journeypersons after certification.^Note Since the majority of apprenticeship training in Canada is work-based and conducted through employment opportunities, journeypersons who finished apprenticeship training likely had better connections to formal and informal professional networks and found better-paying jobs more easily compared to trade qualifiers.

For men, some of the difference in median incomes of visible minorities and non-visible minorities could be explained by other factors

The findings in the previous sections showed that visible minority journeypersons had different characteristics from non-visible minorities, which could affect median income. To control for these characteristics, difference in median incomes were studied using regression models.

Three regression models were estimated, for men and women separately (Table 3). First, no control variables other than visible minority groups were included (Model 1) to measure the total difference in the median incomes.^Note Second, differences in trades were controlled for using a series of dummy variables for selected trades (Model 2). Third, a number of other characteristics (immigration status, union membership, trade qualifier, certification region, mobility, self-employment, and age at certification) were controlled in addition to trades (Model 3).

For men, with the exception of Filipino journeypersons, visible minority journeypersons in selected trades had a significantly lower median employment income than non-visible minority journeypersons (Model 1). Substantial parts of the difference could be explained by differences in the trades in which they certified. If visible minority journeypersons certified in the same trades as non-visible minorities, the model found that the income gap would reduce by 20% to 70%, depending on the group (Model 2).

The gap was further reduced when additional characteristics were controlled. In Model 3, where differences in other characteristics and trade are controlled for, there were no statistically significant differences between non-visible minority journeypersons and Black, Latin American, and Filipino men. In contrast, although the estimated income gaps are smaller compared to that in Model 1, the median income for South Asian and Chinese journeypersons were more than $9,000 lower than non-visible minority journeypersons with the same set of characteristics considered in the model.

In contrast, the factors considered in this study could not explain the majority of the income gap for female journeypersons. With no control, in Model 1, the difference in median income is measured from -$5,300 (South Asian) to +$3,100 (Filipino). No statistically significant differences were found for the median incomes of Chinese, Black, and Filipino journeypersons to that of non-visible minority journeypersons. Trades played little role or were masking parts of underlying income gaps for female journeypersons depending on the population groups. When the trades were controlled (Model 2), the gap remained virtually the same for Chinese, or even grew larger for some groups, implying that many visible minority journeypersons were certified in trades with higher earnings compared to non-visible minority journeypersons. This is because of the higher concentration of non-visible minority female journeypersons in hairstylist, which had a lower median employment income than other trades, than visible minorities.^Note

Other characteristics, such as immigration status and union membership, could account for a small part of the gap in Model 2. When other controls are introduced (Model 3), the income gaps slightly decreased from the estimates in Model 2, leaving the majority of the estimated income gap remained unaccounted for.



Conclusions

Little was known about visible minorities in the skilled trades due to the lack of large-scale data sources appropriate for the analysis prior to the introduction of the ELMLP. Using data from the ELMLP, this study examined visible minority journeypersons.

Visible minority journeypersons had poorer labour market outcomes than non-visible minority journeypersons, in general. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity among journeypersons of different population groups designated as visible minorities. For both men and women, Filipino journeypersons had the highest median employment income among visible minority journeypersons, and had no significant differences to that of non-visible minority counterparts. In contrast, South Asian journeypersons had the lowest median employment income.

This study found that visible minority journeypersons made different choices regarding their careers in trades and a part of the gap in median employment income of male journeypersons could be explained by these differences. As journeypersons of different trades work in different industries and environments, these finding suggests that visible minorities and non-visible minorities may face distinct sets of challenges.

Although this study was able to determine that choice of trade and characteristics contributed to the income gap between visible minority journeypersons and non-visible minorities, this study could not answer why they made different choices due to the descriptive nature of RAIS. The reasons behind different choices can be important for enhancing our understanding of visible minority journeypersons, and this is left for future studies.

Data sources, Methods and Definitions

Data Sources

This study used data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP).  The ELMLP at Statistics Canada was developed to allow for the combination of anonymized information from the Registered Apprenticeship Information System (RAIS) and the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS), with anonymized information from other administrative datasets. The RAIS provides information on individuals who registered for training and those who obtain certification within a trade where apprenticeship training is being offered.

As the RAIS does not contain information on individual’s visible minority status, the response in 2016 Census of Population (2016 Census) is used to identify journeypersons designated as visible minorities. For a variety of reasons, it is possible that the response in 2016 did not capture the accurate population group the person belongs to at the time of interest in this paper. For more information, see the Census definition of Visible Minority of Person.^Note Approximately 25% of journeypersons in the RAIS responded to the long-form census that includes population group questions, and those records were weighted using the person weight in 2016 Census in analysis.^Note

The population of interest for this study is those who responded to 2016 Census and who received a certificate of qualification between 2008 and 2017 and who were 54-year-old or younger in the year of certification were used. Although the majority of journeypersons had only one certification record, it is not uncommon for a person receiving multiple certificates across trades or jurisdictions. In this study, only the most recent certification record of an individual is considered. If the journeyperson received multiple certificates on the same day, one was randomly chosen.

The T1 Family File (T1FF) is used as a source of income and labour market related information. As tax files do not have information on period or duration of employment, it is possible that some journeypersons included in this study did not work full-time full-year. In addition, the income used in this study is the total amount of employment income during the calendar year, of which a part or the entire amount might be earned in a workplace unrelated to the trade the journeyperson certified.

Methods

To conduct statistical significance tests and to compute the confidence interval of estimates, standard errors are estimated by the Balanced Repeated Replication method using the 2016 Census replication weights. See the Sampling and Weighting Technical Report of the 2016 Census for more information.^Note

All estimates are rounded to protect the confidentiality. To ensure reliability of estimates, the estimates are suppressed if the rounded counts are below a certain threshold.

Definitions

Journeypersons are those individuals who passed the qualification exam and received their certificate of qualification from the apprenticeship authority. One can become a journeyperson either through apprenticeship training or through challenging the exam without becoming a registered apprentice. When a distinction is necessary, the latter cases are referred to as trade qualifiers.

Mobility is defined by comparing the jurisdiction of certification and the jurisdiction of residence or employment in one year after certification. Journeypersons are mobile if they filed tax or had employment incomes outside the province or territory of certification. The same definition is used in the Tables 37-10-0205-01 and 37-10-0204-01.^Note

The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities (visible minority persons) as ‘persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.’ The 2016 Census contained population group questions to derive counts for visible minority population. Statistics Canada designates some population groups as visible minorities. Although the 2016 Census enumerated twelve visible minority groups, the largest five groups (South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, and Latin American) are used for separate population group analysis, and persons belonging to other groups are aggregated into the ‘All other designated groups.’ Due to the nature of the aggregation, individuals in the same population groups have diverse backgrounds, such as immigration status, place of birth, cultural or ethnic origin.

Employment income is the sum of wages or salaries, other employment income, and net self-employment income. It also includes tax-exempt employment-income earned by registered Indians. Net self-employment income can be positive, negative, or zero. As a result, small number of journeypersons with self-employment income included in analysis had negative income. All income amounts are inflation-adjusted to 2018 constant dollars using the Consumer Price Index.

Appendix

Appendix 1 Alternative measures of employment income

Median employment income of all journeypersons (with records in the tax data) are reported in Table 1. Using average, instead of median, inflates the levels by about $5,000. This suggests that the distribution of employment income is skewed right, or there are a small number of journeypersons with very high employment income.

As noted, some journeypersons had income from self-employment. Excluding those also affects the estimates, and it generally lowers the level. This implies that those with self-employment income have lower income that those without it.

Although the levels vary depending on the measure used, the overall relationship across population groups remain the same.



Appendix 2 Geographic distribution of visible minority journeypersons



Appendix 3 List of selected trades

In the regression analysis (Table 3), to control for differences in trade choices, it was necessary to have enough observations for each trade. Due to the smaller population size of visible minority journeypersons relative to non-visible minorities, there were many trades where no, or very few, visible minority journeypersons certified. To have reliable estimates, trades were included in the regression analysis only if there are a sufficient number of all seven population groups considered in this study.



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