It’s undeniable. New numbers published Friday show Canada’s labour market is delivering new jobs, better wages and opportunity in every demographic.

Here’s some even better news: immigrants — recent and long-settled both — are a central part of the labour-market strength in Canada, a trend that points to receptive employers, adaptable skill sets among workers and smooth integration.

If it weren’t for the politics of immigration, it’s almost enough to argue in favour of even more.

As every federal Liberal was keen to highlight on Friday, the unemployment rate in May fell to its lowest point in modern history: 5.4 per cent. Almost 28,000 new jobs popped up last month, and 453,000 over the past year.

And we’re making more money. Average hourly wages rose 2.8 per cent from a year earlier.

As every economist was keen to highlight on Friday, the past is one thing, the future is another. Some of the gains could be fleeting and the job bonanza won’t last forever. Some say it will end soon, some say it will end later, and some say the big, bold numbers mask weakness for various parts of the job market.

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But there’s an encouraging underlying trend that is solid and well-established — and bodes well for some of Canada’s key economic challenges of the future. Immigrants are finding jobs just as easily as the rest of us and are increasingly responsible for fuelling growth in the job market — growth that is crucial for employers who are having a hard time finding workers, and that is essential for supporting the mounting numbers of retirees.

Some facts and figures, using three-month moving averages because that’s what StatsCan provides for a broad view of immigrant workers:

The unemployment rate in May for the country was 5.9 per cent. For landed immigrants, it was almost the same: 6 per cent.

New immigrants who have been in Canada less than five years have a somewhat harder time. Their unemployment rate is 9.1 per cent. By the time they’ve been here more than 10 years, their unemployment rate is actually lower than for the population as a whole: 5.3 per cent.

Employment rates tell a similar story. For all of Canada, 61.8 per cent of the working-age population has a job. For landed immigrants, it’s almost the same at 60.8. For immigrants who have been here between five and 10 years, it’s much higher: 71.2 per cent.

If we remove the young and the old from our look at the job market, StatsCan says 83.2 per cent of all workers aged 25 to 54 have a job. For landed immigrants who have been here for more than 10 years, it’s almost exactly the same. “Core-age” newcomers, however, are employed at a lower rate, 69.8 per cent. That’s still healthy by historical standards.

So, there’s no doubt immigrants have some challenges when they first arrive but the numbers suggest they quickly gain their footing. A recent research paper from Statistics Canada shows that immigrants claimed nearly 60 per cent of the new jobs that went to the “core age” portion of the job market.

To be sure, these numbers don’t include refugees, who come with a very different profile than immigrants. But their prospects aren’t bad.

The federal government is tracking the progress of the 60,000 Syrian refugees who recently came to Canada, and sees them finding work fairly steadily. In soon-to-be-released data, the Immigration Department found that 57 per cent of Syrian refugees have jobs, and an additional 23 per cent are looking for work.

Breaking the numbers down further, about 43 per cent of government-assisted refugees now have jobs, compared to just 10 per cent in 2016. And 60 per cent of privately-sponsored refugees are employed, compared to 53 per cent in 2016.

Overall, it’s not a Nirvana for newcomers, whether they be immigrants or refugees. But time helps immensely, and it’s increasingly easy to find employment — especially at times like these when the job market is so robust.

At the New York Federal Reserve, researchers recently looked at how Germany had integrated two massive waves of immigrants and refugees — 1.4 million newcomers from 2011 to 2014, and 2.1 million from 2015 to 2017. They found that Germany’s workforce was younger as a result. Unemployment dropped and incomes rose.

Canada is having a similar experience, albeit on a much smaller scale. And if Germany can benefit from a larger intake of newcomers, couldn’t Canada? The economics say we should, but the politicians say we shouldn’t — at least not all in one fell swoop for fear of igniting an anti-immigrant backlash.

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At the Conference Board of Canada, chief economist Pedro Antunes makes a flawless case for immigrant labour, backed with data showing benefits on all sides. Yet he stops short of recommending Canada ramp up its intake.

“We’re not immune to some of the anti-immigrant sentiment that we’ve seen all over the world. We need to be sensitive of this.”

The labour market, it seems, is more accommodating of newness than public opinion.