How Job Offer Points Work in Ontario’s Workforce Priority Stream

In order to apply, you need to have a job offer from an Ontario employer (the only exception to this is for eligible self-employed physicians). Your job offer will have a huge impact on your score.

There are four OWP scoring factors tied directly to your job offer: your job’s TEER category, its broad occupational category, your hourly wage, and where in Ontario the job is located. Together, these factors account for up to 49 of the 130 points available under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream points grid.

In this article, we break down exactly how those job offer points work.

TEER Category: Up to 9 Points

The first job offer factor is your job’s TEER category, which stands for Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities.

Every occupation in Canada’s National Occupational Classification (NOC) system is assigned a TEER category from 0 to 5 based on the level of training, education and experience required for the job.

Ontario awards the most points to job offers in TEER 0 and 1 occupations:

Pro-tip: You can find your TEER category by looking at the second digit of your five-digit NOC code.

This means candidates with job offers in TEER 0 or 1 occupations have a three-point advantage over those in TEER 2 or 3 jobs. Notably, TEER 4 and 5 job offers don’t receive a single point under TEER category.

Broad Occupational Category: Up to 10 Points

Another component of OWP’s job offer points is your job’s “broad occupational category.”

The broad occupational category is determined by the first digit of your NOC code. This groups Canadian occupations into broad areas of the labour market, like health, trades, business, and more.

Here’s how the points break down:

Health occupations, which fall under Category 3, receive the maximum 10 points. Category 7 occupations, including many trades and transport occupations, receive eight points, while Category 2 occupations in natural and applied sciences receive six.

Hourly Wage: Up to 15 Points

More valuable than the TEER category and broad occupational category is the hourly wage of your job offer. Your Ontario salary has a big impact on your OWP score.

Ontario awards up to 15 points based on the hourly wage for your job offer. As you might expect, higher-paying positions receive more points:

So, for example, increasing from a job paying $29 per hour to one paying $30 per hour would move you from eight points to 10 points under this factor. A job paying at least $40 per hour receives the maximum of 15 points.

Keep in mind that these are scoring thresholds, not the minimum wage requirements for an eligible OWP job offer. Your employer must still meet the wage requirements that apply to your occupation and region for the job offer itself to be eligible for OWP.

Location of Your Job Offer: Up to 15 Points

Finally, Ontario awards additional points based on where your job is located. OWP refers to these as regionalization points. Ontario strongly favours jobs outside the Greater Toronto Area, particularly those in Northern Ontario where immigrant attraction and retention is more challenging.

You receive regionalization points based on the work location entered by your employer in your job offer.

This means two candidates with otherwise identical job offers could receive substantially different scores depending on where they work. A position in Northern Ontario receives 15 points, compared with zero points in the city of Toronto and five points elsewhere in the GTA.

How Many Points Can Your Job Offer Get You?

Put all four factors together and a job offer can land you as many as 49 points toward your Ontario Workforce Priority score:

Ontario also awards points based on your work experience, including experience in your job offer position. We cover those factors separately in our guide to Work Experience points under the Ontario Workforce Priority Stream.

The entire Ontario Workforce Priority scoring system has 130 points available, so the points for your job offer alone can account for a significant percentage of your overall score. Other points are available for factors like Ontario work experience, Canadian earnings history, legal status in Canada, education, and language proficiency.

Note: a higher score does not automatically guarantee an invitation. Ontario has flexibility in how it can conduct draws, opting for general draws or more targeted rounds. As a relatively new stream, it remains unclear exactly how Ontario will leverage its selection system.

You can see the complete Ontario Workforce Priority scoring grid here, including all factors for employment, education, language and regionalization.