Highlights
- The Quebec City census metropolitan area (CMA) gained 6,600 jobs in March compared with February—the best performance in Quebec and the second best in Canada.
- The rise in employment (+1.6%) exceeded the increase in the workforce (+1.2%), driving down the unemployment rate by 0.3 points to 5.3% in March.
- Thanks to its strong performance, the Quebec City region ended the first quarter of 2015 with an additional 6,800 jobs compared with the fourth quarter of 2014.
- The province of Quebec added a total of 5,300 jobs between February and March as unemployment inched up by 0.1 points to 7.5%.
Commentary
Although spring is late in arriving, Quebec City's employment market has been heating up nicely thanks to an excellent performance in March. The metro region created 6,600 jobs since February, reaching a total of 432,400. This was the best result in the province and the second best in Canada (behind Toronto). In addition, spurred by the March results, the Quebec City region finished the first quarter with a net increase of 6,800 jobs compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. Once again, the Quebec City region turned in an exceptional performance, good for second place in Quebec and fifth overall in Canada.
The March results suggest that employment is picking up in the services sector. Despite retail ups and downs, the demand for labour continues to grow in the financial, insurance, business and transportation services sectors, as well as in education, healthcare and social services. In the construction and manufacturing industries, the demand for labour remains constant, although gains are gradual.
The Quebec City region has got off to a robust start in 2015, while a combination of favourable factors should add to the momentum in the next few months. As a result, the region has low unemployment (5.3%) and a high employment rate (64.7%), both of which rank among the best in Canada. However, the pool of available workers remains limited.
Louis Gagnon
Senior Economist
Québec International
