{"id":22651,"date":"2026-08-23T18:52:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/blog\/pgwp-by-field-of-study-canada\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T19:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T15:30:26","slug":"pgwp-by-field-of-study-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/blog\/pgwp-by-field-of-study-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"603,730 post-graduation work permits, by field of study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Between January 2023 and November 2025, Canada issued <strong>603,730<\/strong> post-graduation work permits. IRCC has released that figure broken down by field of study, and the result is a map of what international students actually studied in Canada.<\/p>\n<h2>The trend: a steady decline<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>2023: <strong>243,780<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>2024: <strong>205,340<\/strong> (down 16%)<\/li>\n<li>2025 (Jan\u2013Nov): <strong>154,610<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The 2025 figure covers eleven months. Extended to a full year it lands near <strong>168,665<\/strong> \u2014 roughly <strong>18% below<\/strong> 2024, and about <strong>31% below<\/strong> 2023.<\/p>\n<h2>Where the permits went<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Business\/Commerce:<\/strong> 117,095<\/li>\n<li><strong>Business, Management, Marketing:<\/strong> 113,825<\/li>\n<li><strong>Computing\/IT:<\/strong> 91,140<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other:<\/strong> 55,070<\/li>\n<li><strong>Applied Science:<\/strong> 47,205<\/li>\n<li><strong>Arts\/Humanities\/Social Science:<\/strong> 44,990<\/li>\n<li><strong>Health Sciences:<\/strong> 42,020<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hospitality\/Tourism:<\/strong> 25,780<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The two business categories together account for <strong>230,920<\/strong> permits \u2014 <strong>38%<\/strong> of the total. Computing\/IT follows at 15%.<\/p>\n<p>More than half of every PGWP issued in Canada went to a business or IT graduate.<\/p>\n<h2>Which fields fell hardest<\/h2>\n<p>The most revealing part of the data is how unevenly the decline landed. Annualising 2025 for a like-for-like comparison against 2024:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Steepest declines:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fine, visual and performing arts: <strong>\u221237%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>ESL\/FSL: <strong>\u221236%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Applied Science: <strong>\u221234%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>General Sciences: <strong>\u221231%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Architecture: <strong>\u221231%<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Most resilient:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Management and marketing: <strong>\u22126%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Flight training: <strong>\u22128%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Health sciences: <strong>\u221211%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Trades and vocational: <strong>\u221212%<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What the pattern shows<\/h2>\n<p>The fields holding up best \u2014 health, trades, flight training \u2014 are precisely those that overlap with Canada&#8217;s shortage occupation lists.<\/p>\n<p>The fields falling fastest sit largely in categories the field-of-study requirement, applied from November 2024 to many non-degree programs, does not cover.<\/p>\n<p>The 34% drop in Applied Science is the notable outlier \u2014 a field usually assumed to be safe. It indicates the effect was not confined to short college programs.<\/p>\n<h2>If you have not chosen a program yet<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The name of the field is not the test.<\/strong> What matters is whether the specific program matches the official eligible-field list.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Credential level is decisive.<\/strong> Degree and non-degree programs are not governed by the same rules.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check before you enrol, not after you graduate.<\/strong> Enrolment is the last point at which this is still changeable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Popularity is not protection.<\/strong> Business carries the largest volume of any field and still fell 19%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Source<\/h2>\n<p>Figures from IRCC operational data, compiled by OPP-DART-2026-38691, source IRCC-EDW (CBR) refreshed 2 March 2026, covering 1 January 2023 to 30 November 2025. Field of study is recorded from the most recent study permit issued before the PGWP application. The annualised 2025 figure is our calculation.<\/p>\n<p><!-- av-related --><\/p>\n<h2>Related reading<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/blog\/pgwp-refusal-rate-2025-canada\/\">PGWP refusals in 2025: the number most reports get wrong<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/blog\/canada-coop-work-permit-no-longer-needed\/\">Co-op work permits are gone \u2014 but one line on your study permit decides it<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between January 2023 and November 2025, Canada issued 603,730 post-graduation work permits. IRCC has released that figure broken down by field of study, and the result is a map of what international students actually studied in Canada. The trend: a steady decline 2023: 243,780 2024: 205,340 (down 16%) 2025 (Jan\u2013Nov): 154,610 The 2025 figure covers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study-in-canada-en","category-study-in-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22708,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions\/22708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}