There were 216,695 job vacancies in Quebec at the end of 2022, down 24,015 from September. The vacancy rate, which represents the number of vacancies relative to labor demand, is 5.4%, compared to 5.3% in British Columbia.
It is in Quebec and on the North Shore that the number of vacancies is the highest, according to an analysis by the Institut du Québec based on Statistics Canada data. The vacancy rate reached 6.8% on the North Shore and in Nord-du-Québec and 6.5% in the Capitale-Nationale. Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean has the lowest rate, 4.5%, while Montreal has one of the lowest job vacancy rates in Quebec, 4.7%.
The number of vacancies has dropped by 30% in the accommodation and food service sector over the past year, which is huge. But that doesn’t mean that new employees rushed to land the jobs offered. Several establishments have closed, others have reduced their opening hours, which has reduced the demand for labour. The number of job vacancies is still the highest in the accommodation and catering sector, at 8.4%.
While the number of vacancies is decreasing in catering and accommodation, it is increasing in education, where the increase has reached 16% in one year. There are also more vacancies in the healthcare sector, 14% more than a year ago. The health sector is the one with the highest rate of vacancies, at 7%, after accommodation and catering (8.4%).
More than half of the 216,695 job vacancies in Quebec require few qualifications, either no minimum education or a high school diploma. There are more jobs that require a high school diploma than unemployed people with this diploma. Conversely, there are more unemployed than vacancies for jobs that require a university education.
Offered wages increased by an average of 10% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022 in Quebec, which is the largest increase since this data began to be collected in 2015. The increase reflects market tensions work. At 3.9% at the start of 2023, Quebec has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada. Wages are up sharply in arts, entertainment and recreation (15%), health care (13%) and manufacturing (12%).
Half of the positions posted have been vacant for at least 90 days. The longest-posted vacancies are currently in the healthcare sector, which is finding it increasingly difficult to find employees. The proportion of positions vacant for 90 days or more has increased from 58% in September to 74% in December 2022. The other sectors that have the most difficulty in filling vacancies are manufacturing (65%), transport (57 %) and natural resources (51%).
There are fewer unemployed people than vacancies in Quebec. The number of vacancies is decreasing, but so is the number of unemployed. By the end of 2022, the number of vacancies fell by 10% and the number of unemployed was down by 7%. The ratio of unemployed to vacancies stands at 0.9, down from 1.8 before the pandemic.