23 January 2024 — This Research Insight provides a summary of a paper recently released by Statistics Canada titled Postsecondary educational attainment and labor market outcomes among Indigenous peoples in Canada, findings from the 2021 Census.
Key Results
The good news is that educational attainment among Indigenous people in Canada has improved, particularly among Indigenous women. In 2021, 49.2% of Indigenous people aged 25-64 years had completed a postsecondary certificate, degree or diploma. Notably, the proportion with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, rose by nearly 2 percentage points compared to 2016. Despite these gains, there is attainment gap of 21 percentage points between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous population. Other key finding relating to educational attainment were:
- Indigenous women were more likely to have completed a postsecondary qualification than Indigenous men (53.5% compared to 44.4%).
- Indigenous men were more likely to have competed an apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma than Indigenous women (16.2% compared to 6.4%).
- Indigenous women were more likely to have completed a Bachelor’s degree or higher than Indigenous men (16.4% compared to 9%).
- Educational attainment is impacted by geography – the proportion of First Nations people with a postsecondary qualification living in an area accessible to an economic centre was 49.7% compared to 26.2% for those in very remote areas.
In terms of labor market outcomes, the results show that there remains a significant employment gap of nearly 13 percentage points between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The employment rate for Indigenous people was 61.2% compared to 74.1% for non-Indigenous people. The paper also confirms that educational attainment is highly corelated with improved employment outcomes. For Indigenous people with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, employment levels are almost equivalent (82.6% compared to 82.5%).
What does this mean?
We are seeing that the proportion of Indigenous adults completing a postsecondary qualification is increasing over time. This is welcome news. However, it is also apparent that there remains a significant gap between educational attainment of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people that needs to be addressed.
It has been well documented in Canada and Australia [1] that educational attainment is positively correlated with improved employment outcomes. As an employment services provider, CareerFind can work with educational and training partners to address Indigenous labor market disadvantage by increasing the number of Indigenous clients enrolling in courses that will give them trades certifications in areas of high job demand.
Reference
Melvin, A (2023). Postsecondary educational attainment and labor market outcomes among Indigenous peoples in Canada, findings from the 2021 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue No. 75-006-X, 27 October 2023. Available at: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/75-006-x/2023001/article/00012-eng.pdf?st=e4kgzj-A
[1] See Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (7 September 2023) “Employment of First Nations People.” Available at https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/indigenous-employment#Employment
