The jobless rate rose slightly in June in Quebec as more people looked for work in the province, where the employment situation was little changed for the fifth straight month.
That brought the jobless rate for the month of June steady at 4.4%, according to data from Statistics Canada, which reported a rate of 4.0% for the previous month — very close to the province’s all-time low.
Between May and June, employment in the province fell by -0.2% compared to May. Compared to the previous year’s reporting date, however, this corresponds to an increase of 2.7%.
At the same time, the federal agency in the Montreal Metropolitan Area (CMA) Census finds no change in the unemployment rate, while employment would have risen slightly by 0.3% compared to May.
For the Quebec CMA, the unemployment rate reached 3.1% in June, up 0.5 percentage points from May. This is mainly due to a -0.8% fall in employment in the region.
According to Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate in the country rose to 5.4% (+0.2 percentage points), the “highest” rate in more than a year. It last reached this level in February 2022.
Nationwide employment also increased by 60,000 (+0.3%), particularly in full-time employment (+110,000; +0.7%).
The average salary is up 4.2% year-over-year, an increase of $1.32 per hour, and is now $33.12. Compared to the previous month, it also increased by 5.1%.
Employment rose in June, particularly in wholesale and retail trade (+33,000), manufacturing (+27,000), health and social services (+21,000) and transport and warehousing (+10,000).
At the same time, there were declines in construction (-14,000), education (-14,000) and agriculture (-6,000).