The unemployment rate in Quebec recorded a drop of 0.5 percentage points in December, reaching 4.7%, while the number of workers increased somewhat at the end of 2023.
Jobs increased both full-time and part-time in La Belle Province, with respective increases of 0.1% and 0.6% between November and December, according to Statistics Canada data released Friday.
At the end of 2023, it is however possible to note that more Quebecers have found part-time employment (+8.6%) than full-time employment (-0.1%).
Nationally, employment was unchanged in December, while the unemployment rate remained at 5.8% to end the year.
“In December, 1.2 million people were unemployed, an increase of 202,000 (+19.3%) compared to 12 months earlier,” noted Statistics Canada.
The number of employed people increased particularly in the professional, scientific and technical services sector (+46,000; +2.4%) and the health care and social assistance sector (+16,000; + 0.6%).
Conversely, the wholesale and retail trade (-21,000; -0.7%) and manufacturing (-18,000; -1%) sectors faced a drop in the number of employees .
“Compared to a year earlier, the average hourly wage increased by 5.4% (+$1.78 to reach $34.45) in December,” the federal agency also specified.