While Canada’s overall employment rate decreased in 2023, the number of people finding work through ride-hail and delivery apps ballooned, according to Statistics Canada’s latest jobs report. Here’s what you need to know:

46%: That’s how much the Canadian workforce for app-based ride-hail and delivery companies grew in 2023. There were about 365,000 people who worked with companies like Uber and SkipTheDishes during the year, compared to 250,000 in 2022, the first year Statistics Canada tracked the workforce. The number of people in Canada aged 16 to 69 driving for ride-hail platforms grew 48.1 per cent to 135,000, while those delivering food jumped 19.2 per cent to 272,000 people. 

New Canadians are overrepresented in gig work: StatCan’s labour force survey includes temporary residents—people in Canada on work or study permits, their families and refugee claimants—as well as permanent residents. Nearly 60 per cent of people driving and delivering through apps were immigrants. That’s more than the year before, when immigrants accounted for 53.4 per cent of gig workers. The vast majority of this workforce—about 70 per cent—belonged to racialized groups.

Are gigs replacing traditional jobs? The growing number of gig workers coincides with an overall drop—albeit a small one—in Canada’s employment rates. The jobs report shows a decrease of 0.4 percentage points for Canadians aged 25 to 54 from December 2022 to December 2023. For younger men and women, the employment rate fell 3.1 percentage points. Despite the dip, employment rates are still above the pre-pandemic average, while unemployment in December held steady at 5.8 per cent. 

Gig work and recessions: It’s common for gig and part-time, temporary work to increase as joblessness grows during economic slowdowns. Some economists had predicted, however, that the current downturn would be different, given employers’ persistently high demand for workers. The near doubling in the number of certain gig workers challenges that expectation. 

Statistics Canada’s jobs report doesn’t explore workers’ motivations for gigging. The need for more income amid rising costs of living could be one factor at play. A 2020 report from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Future Skills Centre noted that most people use app-based work to supplement salaries from traditional jobs. The growing population of newcomers to Canada—the government aimed for 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023, up from under 300,000 in 2015—could be another influence. As the Future Skills report noted, “the gig economy offers easy access to workers in a workforce that undervalues immigrant skills.”