Truck drivers included in Canada’s Express Entry program

Commercial truck driving is now one of the occupations included in Canada’s Express Entry program to recruit immigrants for high-demand sectors.

Sean Fraser, minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), announced Wednesday the implementation of the revised national occupational classification (NOC). The move opens up doors to permanent residency under the Express Entry immigration program for 16 new occupations, including health care, construction and transport jobs.

“We are using all of the tools at our disposal to tackle labor shortages … these changes will support Canadians in need of these services, and they will support employers by providing them with a more robust workforce who we can depend on to drive our economy forward into a prosperous future,” Fraser said in a news release.

Canada’s trucking industry currently has openings for almost 30,000 driving jobs, officials said, with the total job vacancies expected to increase to 50,000 jobs by 2024.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance said the vacancy rate in the trucking industry is about 8% compared to a 5.4% rate for general employment.

“Every sector of the Canadian economy relies on the trucking industry,” Stephen Laskowski, president of Canadian Trucking Alliance, said in a statement. “[The] announcement by Minister Fraser will help secure supply chains — from agriculture to manufacturing — by providing trucking companies access to an international workforce that was not previously available to our sector.”

NOC is the national reference for occupations in Canada, providing a classification structure and disseminating occupational data for labor market information. Express Entry is Canada’s flagship application management system for those seeking to immigrate to Canada permanently.