Employers submitting LMIAs for low-wage positions must extend advertising period, actively recruit youth
The federal government is imposing new obligations on employers that rely on low‑wage temporary foreign workers, requiring them to target young people in Canada before turning to overseas recruits.
Effective April 1, 2026, employers submitting a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) application for low‑wage positions under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) must both extend their advertising period and show they have actively recruited youth, according to updated federal guidance. The measures are intended to ensure that domestic candidates, and young workers in particular, are given priority access to available jobs.
The government now requires employers to advertise the job offer for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks in the three months before submitting the application, and target youth in recruitment efforts.”
Focus on youth hiring
In addition to the longer minimum advertising period, employers must “demonstrate recruitment efforts to reach and encourage youth to apply for the job to ensure that they were provided with every opportunity to obtain employment.”
Federal guidance cites specific examples of acceptable practices, including:
- posting on Job Bank (youth section) and youth job boards
- working with schools or colleges
- participating in youth employment programmes
- using other platforms popular with youth
The federal Job Bank remains central. Before applying for an LMIA, employers must advertise the position on the government of Canada’s Job Bank, and if another website or method is used instead, they must submit a written rationale and explanation. Combined with the youth‑targeting requirement, a compliant recruitment campaign will typically need both standard
Previously, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) urged governments to enhance efforts to ensure Canadian youth are job-ready when they enter the workforce.
Temporary workers in low-wage jobs
Alongside the youth requirement, Ottawa is maintaining and refining caps on the proportion of temporary foreign workers in low‑wage positions. In certain sectors, including construction, food manufacturing, hospitals, and nursing and residential care facilities, the cap on the proportion of TFWs an employer can hire is set at 20 per cent, with specific in‑home caregiver roles in private households also covered by the higher limit.
Outside those areas, a 10 per cent cap applies, and small employers with fewer than 10 workers nationally are generally limited to hiring one or two TFWs in low‑wage roles, depending on the applicable cap.
The federal government has also introduced measures aimed at rural employers, while keeping youth hiring at the heart of the broader framework. As of April 1, 2026, employers in rural areas may be eligible for temporary measures on the proportion of temporary foreign workers hired for certain low‑wage positions in regions outside census metropolitan areas and within participating provinces and territories.
Alberta is moving to assert greater control over how temporary foreign workers and other newcomers are brought into the province, introducing legislation that would create new registries, licensing rules and enforcement powers aimed at cracking down on fraud and exploitation.
NCC’s call to ‘Hire Canadian’
The policy shift unfolds against an increasingly heated political debate about youth employment and immigration levels. In a previous press release, the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) – a Canadian conservative advocacy group – and its director of communications Alexander Brown called on Canadian businesses and stakeholders to go beyond “Buy Canadian” and prioritise “HIRING Canadian workers” in response to what it described as “the worst summer job market for young Canadians in two decades” and “record‑high youth unemployment.”
The NCC argued that the federal government’s “continued failure to reform a broken immigration system” is compounding the problem.
Citing Canada’s Q1 2025 immigration data, the NCC noted that over 817,000 newcomers arrived when permanent and non‑permanent streams are combined, and warned that “unchecked immigration levels are exacerbating economic challenges for Canadian youth.”
Brown added that, “at a time when 89 per cent of Canadians under 34 have been demoralised into believing that ‘owning a home is only for the rich’ (Ipsos poll), along comes the worst summer job market in two decades to match the continued Liberal failure to course‑correct on the mass‑immigration” file.
The rate of youth unemployment in Canada has reached levels beyond what could be expected, the CIBC reported in August 2025. Youth aged 15 to 24 saw deteriorating labour market conditions in December 2025. Their unemployment rate rose 0.5 percentage points to 13.3 per cent as youth employment fell by 27,000 (down 1.0 per cent).
How can we address youth unemployment?
Here’s what employers and other stakeholders can do to address the issue of youth unemployment, shares Tricia Williams, Director for Research, Evaluation and Knowledge Mobilization at the Future Skills Centre:
- Make work‑integrated learning the norm: “Every student should have a chance to get hands‑on experience while in school, not just in tech or business but across all fields.”
- Support small businesses to hire youth: “Make it easier and less risky for small and midsize enterprises to bring in students and new grads through incentives and simplified processes.”
- Modernise and extend career guidance: “Young people need up‑to‑date info, personalised support, and access to real people who can help them make sense of a changing job market.”
- Invest in the right mix of skills – yes, digital skills, but also social‑emotional skills to work with AI, and green skills to support Canada’s transition: “Employers play a vital role in building talent through ongoing training and support.”
- Build social capital. Many youth, especially those from marginalised communities, lack access to networks that open doors: “Let’s invest in programs that connect them with mentors, employers and opportunities.”
- Tailor interventions with the right community partners: “Indigenous, newcomer and racialised youth all face separate and distinct challenges in navigating the post‑secondary system, finding work and advancing in their roles.”
Failure to address its youth unemployment crisis will cost the country $18.5 billion in GDP by 2034, according to a previous report by Kings’ Trust and Deloitte.
