He is an internationally renowned economist in the fields of labor economics, human resource economics and immigration economics. He is the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Economic and Cultural Transformation and Full Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. He currently holds the J. Robert Beyster Faculty Fellowship at Rutgers University.

Fang has served on the World Bank’s Expert Advisory Committee on Migration and Development (2014–19) and was Director at Monash University, Australia (2013–14). He was President of the CES (2012–13) and Domain Leader at CERIS, Ontario Metropolis Centre (1999–2012). He has held visiting professorships at Harvard University and NBER, Wharton School, City University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, and Hanyang University (South Korea).

In 2017, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in recognition of his commitment to inspiring better ways of thinking, acting, and delivering change. In 2025, won the Moele Gonderson Award of the University of Toronto. As the project leader, Professor Fang has received a total of 11 research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (out of which 17 were approved) and 5 research grants from the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.

Professor Fang has served as an expert in participating in the policy consultation for the reform of the Canadian pension system, and has also been involved in the comprehensive review and revision of the Canadian “Employment Equality Act”. He has also provided policy consultation services for Statistics Canada, the Canadian Department of Human Resources Development.