18,000 immigrants are missing to meet the regions’ annual labor needs, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which is asking Quebec to prioritize SMEs hit by labor shortages.
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According to a CFIB study, the annual labor shortage is more acute outside of Montreal, largely due to the inflow of fewer new arrivals, while between 2015 and 2019 75% of immigrants chose to settle in metro Quebec.
“Nearly 37,000 immigrants choose Montreal, but that does not mean that the labor shortage there will be solved, on the contrary,” said François Vincent, vice president for Quebec at the CFIB, specifying that Montreal has almost 80,000 vacancies.
“The deficit in the regions of 18,000 immigrants per year is worrying for our economy, especially considering the many upcoming retirements,” commented François Vincent, vice president for Quebec at the CFIB, on Monday.
The Montérégie leads the regions with a large deficit in this area with 4,845 immigrants, followed by the Laurentians (2,840) and Lanaudière (2,186), due to the lack of a regionalization plan for immigration, the panel regrets.
The outlook is even bleaker as the deficit by 2025 will be miserable for Montérégie with a predictable deficit of 24,225 immigrants, 14,200 in the Laurentians and 10,930 in Lanaudière.
“If nothing changes, our regions will bear the brunt of the impact of labor shortages over the next few years,” predicts Francis Bérubé, director of provincial affairs and author of the study.