Employment in Quebec fell by 63,000 (-1.4%) in January and the unemployment rate rose 0.7 percentage points to 5.4%, according to Statistics Canada.
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This is the first notable drop in employment in the province for 12 months, which is notably attributable to the health measures recently implemented in the province with the arrival of the Omicron variant.
“In addition to the restrictions on the reception capacity and the closures of many places of service, the province imposed a curfew at the end of December 2021”, recalled the federal agency.
The decline in employment was felt mainly among young people aged 15 to 24 and among adults aged 25 to 54.