CREDIT: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun Lesley Wood Bernbaum, regional director of Career Edge, links professional immigrants with jobs.

A job and education fair in downtown Vancouver Monday is designed to tackle a growing problem in Canada: linking visible minorities with jobs that match their skills.

The New Canadians, Aboriginals and Visible Minorities Job and Education Fair at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, which is being put on by the NAS Institute and is free to visitors, will address what organizers call employment and economic gaps among specific demographics.

Exhibitors are employers, professional associations, employment information providers and government departments.

"People from outside Canada tend to have higher unemployment [in Canada]," job fair organizer Ade Olumide said in an interview. "And we also see that trend with aboriginal and visible minorities. When you don't have full engagement by all members of society, it's a loss to the economy. This fair will give employers an opportunity to see the talent that's out there."

According to a Statistics Canada study released earlier this month, new Canadian immigrants have an unemployment rate up to three times higher than that of Canadian-born workers with the same education.

The study noted that very recent immigrants [those in Canada five years or less] had the most difficulty integrating into the labour market.

In 2006, the study noted, the national unemployment rate for immigrants was 11.5 per cent, compared to 4.9 per cent for the Canadian-born population.

For immigrants who had been in Canada between five and 10 years, the unemployment rate was 7.3 per cent.

Immigrants in Canada for more than 10 years had unemployment rates more similar to those of Canadian-born workers.

The report, which noted that many newcomers need time to adjust to their new life in Canada and break into the workforce, supported previous reports that have shown that new immigrants face many barriers to finding work, including a lack of Canadian work experience, lack of recognition of foreign credentials and language barriers.

Ironically, new immigrants were also found to be more likely to have a university degree than native-born Canadians.

As well, recent immigrants in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver faced unemployment rates close to three times the rates experienced by Canadian-born residents in those cities.

New immigrants were also found to be more likely to be working in sales and service jobs than Canadian-born workers, the report found.

Olumide, who expects A propos de nous 40 employers and 1,000 job hunters will attend Monday's job fair, agreed that Canadian demographics still don't reflect visible minorities in the workplace to the extent they're represented in the population as a whole.

"The demographics of companies should be reflective of the population. If you have 40 per cent visible minorities in Vancouver, you should see similar demographics. Banks have done very well, but not all companies have.

"And visible minorities typically earn 30 per cent less than Caucasians."

Olumide said that professional people from outside Canada not only have trouble getting their qualifications accepted here, but that "even if that was fully addressed, there would still be the issue of the soft skills, the ability to relate with their peers and work in a team.

"There's a perception [in many companies] that there's some level of risk. And people are more likely to hire people who are like themselves."

He said the job fair, which runs from noon to 7 p.m., aims to change that perception. "If the accounting department is only three per cent minorities and you'd like it to be 15 per cent, you can come to the fair and hopefully meet as many visible minority accountants as possible."

Olumide said that B.C.'s tight labour market helps, but only so much. "People are finding that they can't always get a job in their field. That's especially true for visible minorities."

One of the organizations attending Monday's job fair is Career Edge, a non-profit organization that helps launch careers through internships.

Career Edge, which has been active in Toronto for several years, recently opened an office in Vancouver.

B.C. regional director Lesley Wood Bernbaum said in an interview that their organization's Career Bridge program, which will be promoted at the fair, helps professionally trained immigrants find work in Canada.

"They want an opportunity to get their career under way in Canada," said Wood Bernbaum. "We connect the pool of registrants with host organizations or employers who are posting internship positions. We do all the screening. We meet them, interview them, see their skills and how they function in English. It's very helpful for the employer."

She said the internships can last anywhere from four months to a year and that "85 per cent get work in their field of expertise, and 70 per cent with the employer who hosted their internship."

She said the Career Bridge program gives newcomers the opportunity to apply their skills and expertise in the Canadian workplace. Since its inception in 2003, she said, the program has launched more than 640 careers with more than 200 Canadian host organizations.

Wood Bernbaum said that one of the biggest problems for professionally trained immigrants is simply getting their foot in the door.

"And some people who are arriving feel compelled to take the first job [that comes up] without thinking A propos de nous getting their Canadian career launched.

"That's our goal, to get them in the [right] door, to make that first big step.

"We can place anyone from a systems analyst to a project manager, international sales and marketing manager, or an urban design planner."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Purolator Courier, which is also attending the fair, said the company hopes to hire 20 people, including couriers, warehouse workers and clerical workers.

Susan Schmidtke said in an interview that they are entry-level positions, but employees have the opportunity to move up quickly. "It's hard to make that transition," she said, referring to the difficulty that many new Canadians have launching a career in Canada. "But with a company like ours, they can grow into administrative positions, finance, or managers. In our company, we promote within. Ninety per cent of our managers started out as couriers or warehouse staff."

Peter Brodsky, communications manager for Waste Management of Canada Corp., said in an interview that his company will also attend the fair because it's looking for new talent.

"We're looking for qualified and capable people in all positions, including mechanics, drivers and professional positions including administration, sales and accounting."

Brodsky said his company would consider hiring someone who recently arrived in Canada and then help them hone their skills and upgrade their qualifications.

Other organizations attending the fair include: the Vancouver Police Department, Brink's, Compass Group Canada, Thompson Rivers University - Open Learning, ALS Laboratory Group, Delta Hotels, WorkSafe BC, Canadian Western Bank Group, Sears Canada, Vancouver Sun and The Province, Dell, and Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp.

In June, the B.C. government put up $43 million to help immigrants find the work they are capable of doing and to better adapt to life in their new communities. The funds are part of $71.5 million in additional federal funding for settlement programs negotiated by the province under last fall's Agreement for Canada-British Columbia Cooperation on Immigration.

The "Welcome B.C." initiative was designed to ensure B.C. remains a popular destination for new immigrants who will be needed to fill an anticipated one million new jobs over the next 12 years.

Welcome B.C. unites immigration settlement and multiculturalism services under one umbrella, and promises to help newcomers find everything from important information A propos de nous English-language courses to employment, health, education and recreation services.

More than 42,000 immigrants came to B.C. last year, a number roughly equal to the student population at the University of B.C., and the second highest in Canada after Ontario.

bmorton@png.canwest.com