In recent months, many employers have hired young teenagers, even children, to fill positions within their company. The increase in occupational injuries among young people reported by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) confirms, beyond the many anecdotes relayed by the media, this upward trend in youth work in Quebec.
The spectacular increase in the use of temporary foreign labor over the past five years, particularly in the agriculture and agri-food sector, is also accompanied by an increase in work accidents recorded at the CNESST.
Discouraged by the difficulties they encounter in hiring staff, do Quebec companies have no choice but to turn to vulnerable groups such as children or migrants? A deeper look at the dynamics that run through the labor market leads to different conclusions.
Since 2015, since Statistics Canada has been collecting data with its survey on job vacancies and salaries, we have observed an increase in the rate of job vacancies in Quebec—as in Canada, for that matter—in several sectors of the ‘economy. The trend has been down since the second quarter of 2022, but it will take a few months before knowing if this downward trajectory, possibly caused by the rise in interest rates, is confirmed.
Several factors explain this increase, starting with the low unemployment rate, which has been falling almost continuously for thirty years. As the pool of “unemployed” people is reduced, finding people to fill positions becomes all the more difficult. This is added to the aging of the population, leading to a rise in retirements for two decades. Paradoxically, the employment rate of people over 65 is also on the rise, which makes it unrealistic (in addition to being undesirable) to rely more on older workers to meet business needs. .
However, it is probably the quality of jobs that is the most determining factor in the difficulty some companies encounter in filling vacancies. For example, the average hourly wage offered for the 25 occupations with the highest number of vacancies, which represent almost half of the 208,795 vacancies in the 4e quarter of 2022 in Quebec, was $22.44, nearly 30% lower than the average hourly wage of people employed during this quarter (i.e. $31.71).
While a significant proportion of available jobs offer wages above the Quebec average, atypical schedules, compulsory overtime or even the high mental load they require make them unattractive and lead to retention problems.
Changing perspective on work
What to do to remedy the situation? The contribution of newcomers to the labor force is undeniable, since the people Quebec welcomes are younger on average than people born here. However, by relying on temporary immigration, the government is normalizing an outdated business model based on the (temporary) employment of people vulnerable to abuse. And this, for reasons that seem at first sight ideological.
Rather than betting on precariousness, Quebec industries that say they are in a shortage situation must act to improve the working conditions they offer. In the restaurant, accommodation or retail sector, low pay and a lack of respect for employees explain, among other things, companies’ recruitment difficulties.
As for qualified jobs in the health, social services or education sectors, years of budgetary austerity and structural reforms have contributed to dehumanizing the work of professionals, forcing thousands of employees into exodus. Put in place by the Legault government, the measures included in the framework of Opération main-d’oeuvre to encourage training in these strategic sectors could prove to be ineffective if the trained personnel do not remain in employment due to a work environment that is harmful to their health or well-being.
At a time when a major environmental crisis is raging, and when several public services and social programs on which the quality of life of the Quebec population depends are weakened, the priority is to attract workers to sectors that are essential for society, rather than in sectors with labor shortages. This means reviewing our approach to economic development, in particular by rethinking business subsidy programs. Indeed, in the current context, the millions of dollars paid out each year in the form of subsidies or low hydroelectricity tariffs ultimately serve to create vacant positions.
It also means recognizing that not all jobs currently available are necessarily socially useful or environmentally sustainable, and therefore do not necessarily need to be filled. This change of lens implies that we place ourselves from the point of view of the communities that companies serve, rather than persisting in a faulty logic.