Despite the labor shortage, the high vacancy rate of office buildings and telework which still affects downtown traffic, economic activity in Greater Montreal has regained its pre-pandemic momentum. and even recorded new peaks, particularly in terms of the employment rate which reached, last April, a record level for the last 15 years on the Island of Montreal.
Posted at 6:30 a.m.
We often have the impression that gloom still hovers above the Montreal sky, a perception that is no doubt explained by the perpetual state of disorganization of its road network, continually afflicted by the appearance of new construction sites and new obstacles. and the undue extension of the work in progress for many months. We have the distinct impression that we will never see the end of it.
Again this week, the Ministère des Transports and the City of Montreal unveiled the list of summer construction sites that will be spreading on the island and all around. No less than 85 major construction sites will further complicate the already difficult life of motorists who have to pass through Montreal.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The REM construction site, last May
We are talking about a 40% increase in the volume of work compared to last year, when access to the Jacques-Cartier bridge, the Louis-H. -La Fontaine and the Metropolitan Expressway will be hindered and that the continuation of the construction of the REM will still generate its share of detours…
Despite this painful and distressing reality, economic activity in Montreal seems surprisingly shielded against these circulatory constraints.
In a document recently produced by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal, we see that the economy of Greater Montreal is running at full speed and is even in a better position than it was at its peak in 2019, before the pandemic.
Of all the regions of Quebec, it is that of Greater Montreal that has posted the strongest rebound in the employment situation since the pandemic, which allows it to find itself today at a peak of the last ten years.
The situation has particularly firmed up in private knowledge services (professionals, finance, engineering, information technology, video games, artificial intelligence, etc.) where the employment rate is significantly higher than it was in 2019. The same goes for public and parapublic services, where job creation in the fields of health and education brings us back to a peak of the last ten years.
After a slight dip in 2020, the number of jobs in the private knowledge services sector has reached new records, which is not yet the case in transport where the very gradual recovery in air traffic and the difficulties of the supply chain have slowed the recovery movement.
The situation in the manufacturing sector is still very slightly behind what it was in 2019 due to the vagaries of the supply chain, but it is on the verge of surpassing the highs it had reached three years ago.
Even the island bounces
Surprisingly, the employment rate is now higher on the Island of Montreal than in the greater metropolitan area that includes the North and South Shores. The island has a record employment rate for the past 15 years.
According to Sylvain Giguère, chief economist of the Montreal Metropolitan Community, who compiled this economic data, economic growth is so strong that it continues to allow job creation despite the labor shortage.
“It is on the island of Montreal that the knowledge services companies that have benefited the most from the dynamism of this sector of activity are concentrated. Manufacturing companies that automate their processes also become more productive. It is only in the consumer sector that we are unable to regain the upper hand and that we still find ourselves today well below the employment levels of 2019.
“In 2020, many workers were hesitant to accept a position, many have returned to the market and we realize that regardless of the unemployment rate, whether low or high, the number of vacant positions remains high, is what is called the Beveridge curve,” the economist points out.
Finally, while the vacancy rate for office buildings in the greater Montreal area is at its highest level in the last 20 years, at nearly 17%, it is quite the opposite that we observe on the side of industrial real estate which posted its lowest rate since 2000, very close to zero…
“The data shows us that to pursue Montreal’s economic development, we will have to better manage the economic space by rethinking our industrial parks in particular, strengthening the innovation ecosystem, developing skills and, finally, accelerating the energy transition. “, notes Sylvain Giguère, of the CMM.
A finding that recent economic statistics for Greater Montreal fully confirm.