Of all Canadian provinces, Quebec ended 2022 with the lowest unemployment rate of 4.3%, compared to 5.3% for Canada as a whole and 5.6% for Ontario.
To cheer ! But do François Legault and his two bigwigs in business, Finance Minister Eric Girard and his Super Minister for Economy and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon, have much to show for themselves? No !
Compared to 2019 before the pandemic, the “performance” of Legault’s economics team in terms of job creation comes only close to that of Doug Ford’s economics team in Ontario.
According to Statistics Canada and Statistics Quebec, nearly 72,600 jobs have been created in Quebec over the past three years. This represents just 12.5% of all jobs created in Canada over those three years.
This is well below the weight of Quebec’s active population in the country, which totals 22.2%.
In the same three-year period, 306,100 jobs were created in Ontario. For example, under the Doug Ford administration, Ontario can boast of having created 52.7% of the 580,900 jobs added in Canada since 2019.
This is 13.3 percentage points more than the weight of the Ontario working population (39.4%) in Canada.
We agree that Ontario has recorded an exceptional performance over the past three years compared to 2019, which is now used as a “benchmark” as a normal year before the start of the 2020 pandemic.
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committed to modesty
I would also urge Messrs Legault, Girard and Fitzgibbon to be modest in praising our low unemployment rate of 4.3%. And especially not compared to Ontario’s 5.6% unemployment rate.
The difference between the two unemployment rates is due to the fact that Quebec’s labor force has increased very little over the past three years compared to Ontario’s labor force.
While Quebec’s labor force grew by 36,500, it exploded in Ontario by 320,800. Ontario accounted for 62.6% of the country’s labor force growth and Quebec for just under 7.1%.
With such weak labor force growth, we understand why Quebec is facing a serious labor shortage crisis!
Where has Quebec created the most jobs over the past three years?
The private is pale
In Québec’s public sector, this sector includes employees from various levels of government and parastatal (federal, provincial, local), crown corporations, etc.
Compared to 2019, Quebec had approximately 98,800 more government employees in 2022.
During the same three-year period, the private sector hired just 36,200 new employees.
While employment in Québec’s public sector grew by 10.5%, the private sector posted a sluggish 1.3% increase.
In these three years, the number of self-employed fell by around 62,400.
Less health jobs!
Last observation and last but not least. The health and social care sector has lost 1,000 jobs since 2019.
I invite François Legault and his Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to explain to us the pros and cons of this astounding loss of staff in the critical health sector.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE LABOR MARKET IN QUEBEC BETWEEN 2019 AND 2022
activity area : goods sector
Number of jobs in 2022: 921,000
Change compared to 2019: + 35,300
activity area : Primary Sector
Number of jobs in 2022: 101,400
Change compared to 2019: + 4900
activity area : Public service
Number of jobs in 2022: 28,500
Change compared to 2019: + 3100
activity area : construction
Number of jobs in 2022: 294,300
Change compared to 2019: + 27,700
activity area : manufacturing
Number of jobs in 2022: 496,800
Change compared to 2019: – 400
activity area : service sector
Number of jobs in 2022: 3,459,700
Change compared to 2019: + 37,300
activity area : Act
Number of jobs in 2022: 646,700
Change compared to 2019: – 10,700
activity area : Transport and Storage
Number of jobs in 2022: 226,400
Change compared to 2019: – 13,000
activity area : finance and real estate
Number of jobs in 2022: 272,600
Change compared to 2019: + 33,900
activity area : Professional Services
Number of jobs in 2022: 381,500
Change compared to 2019: + 35,500
activity area : business services
Number of jobs in 2022: 166,300
Change compared to 2019: – 11,500
activity area : educational services
Number of jobs in 2022: 344,700
Change compared to 2019: + 44,400
activity area : health care
Number of jobs in 2022: 605 400
Change compared to 2019: – 1000
activity area : Information, culture and leisure
Number of jobs in 2022: 181,600
Change compared to 2019: + 8900
activity area : Accommodation and catering
Number of jobs in 2022: 198,400
Change compared to 2019: – 56,000
activity area : Other Services
Number of jobs in 2022: 163,000
Change compared to 2019: – 17,400
activity area : Public administration
Number of jobs in 2022: 273 100
Change compared to 2019: + 24,200
Sources: Statistics Canada and Statistical Institute of Quebec
