According to monthly (not seasonally adjusted) labor market data just released by Statistics Canada, the number of full-time jobs in Quebec fell by 190,700 over the past five months. As a result, Quebec lost around 5% of all full-time jobs. It’s dramatic!
This sharp loss in full-time jobs was “fortunately” partially offset by the increase in part-time jobs, 122,600, recorded over the same five-month period.
In the end, Quebec still recovered, with a total loss of around 68,000 jobs in five months (the loss of 190,700 full-time jobs minus the gain of 122,600 part-time jobs). This represents a total loss of 1.5% compared to the number of jobs retained in June last year.
One important disadvantage: On an economic level, we still need to realize that the value of a full-time job far exceeds the value of a part-time job.
- Listen to the economy part with Michel Girard above QUB radio :
Therefore, times are very difficult in the labor market in Quebec, with the exception of the public sector.
PRIVATE SECTOR VERSUS PUBLIC SECTOR
A very worrying observation: all of the jobs lost since last June have come from the private sector.
Quebec’s public sector (provincial, federal, municipal, etc.) has “succeeded” in creating 6,200 jobs in the last five months. There are currently 1,049,000 employees in our public sector in Quebec. Almost one in four workers in Quebec works in the public sector.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Of course, the decline in the number of jobs automatically leads to an increase in the number of unemployed. In November, the number of unemployed people in Quebec was 231,400, 44,400 more than in June last year.
The unemployment rate in La Belle province is now 4.9%, 1 percentage point higher than in June (3.9%).
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IN ONTARIO?
As we know, François Legault’s CAQ government likes to compare itself to Doug Ford’s Ontario government, while emphasizing that Quebec is increasingly catching up with Ontario in terms of productivity.
When it comes to the latest statistics on the labor market, the Legault government has nothing to boast about.
As evidence of this, Ontario’s labor market has declined by 1.2% over the past five months, compared to a 1.5% decline in Quebec.
More significantly, the number of full-time jobs has fallen by 2.9% in Ontario since last June, while in Quebec the decline reached 5%.
However, the Legault government will undoubtedly find opportunity to boast that Quebec’s unemployment rate (4.9%) is lower than Ontario’s (5.5%), and has been for several quarters.
This is true. The gap can be explained in particular by the fact that Ontario has recorded a stronger growth in its active population in recent years than Quebec!