Canada extends work hours for international students to address labor shortage

The Canadian government announced a new policy to lift the 20-hour per week limit for international students who work off-campus. The policy will be in effect from November 15 by the end of 2023. This policy applies to students studying full time only.

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Sean Fraser said, “There’s more job opportunities than there are workers in almost every community.:

Fraser also announced plans to automate some approvals of study permit extension applications, meant to address a backlog.

Canada has significantly become dependent on temporary residents, that includes a large population of international students, to fill its labor force needs. This creates a bit complexed workforce and can depress wages and working conditions for all employees.

Canada’s job placement rate was 5.4% in July this year, down from a peak of 6.0% in April 2022. So, employers were actively looking for employees to fill nearly 1 million jobs as of July in Canada,

Canada is working on improving pathways to permanency for international students as well as to undocumented people but would not give details.

Lifting the cap will give students a greater choice of employment opportunities, helping them not to fall victim to exploitative employers. 

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