Employment in Quebec saw little change in September, as did the unemployment rate, which stood at 4.4%, down 0.1% from the previous month, according to Statistics Canada.
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The number of full-time jobs increased in La Belle Province with a jump of 17,200 jobs (+0.5%) between August and September 2022. Conversely, the number of part-time workers fell by 17 100 (-2%).
The rebalancing between the two types of employment therefore did little to change the number of jobs in general in the province, which only saw an increase of 200 jobs in September.
The main gains were observed in the professional, scientific and technical services (+10,100) and accommodation and food services (+9,700) sectors.
Conversely, declines were recorded in transportation and warehousing (-12,200) and in information, culture and recreation (-9,000).
“In Quebec, the situation has improved, but we will have to see how long the robustness of the labor market will hold up in the face of the economic slowdown which is confirmed,” indicated Joëlle Noreau, senior economist at Desjardins.
On the metropolitan side, the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Montreal experienced a 0.1% decrease in jobs month over month
The same scenario could be observed at the national level with a decrease of 0.2 points in the unemployment rate to reach 5.2%, which is explained by the “fall in the number of people looking for work”, after the federal agency.
Employment also changed little in Canada with a slight increase of 0.1 point for 19,548,000 jobs in the country, which represents an increase of 21,000 workers.
“The number of public sector employees increased in September, partially offsetting declines in July and August,” Statistics Canada said.
The neighboring province of Ontario recorded a loss of 32,000 jobs in September (-0.4%) and the unemployment rate was little changed (5.8%). In the Toronto CMA, employment also fell by 66,000 (-1.9%) as unemployment rose 0.4 percentage points to 6.3%.