(Montreal) People aged 55 and over have just surpassed the million jobs mark in Quebec.
In 2023, they occupied 1,000,500 jobs compared to 961,000 in 2022, revealed Tuesday the Institute of Statistics of Quebec (ISQ) in its annual report on the labor market for 2023.
These workers aged 55 and over now occupy nearly one in four jobs, or 22.2% of all jobs in Quebec.
While these statistics may seem impressive, they are even more so when we take a step back. Thus, for the period 2013-2023, employment growth reached 34.6% among those aged 55 and over, while it was only 6.5% for those aged 25 to 54. .
“It’s a safe bet that it will increase further in the coming years,” Luc Cloutier-Villeneuve, labor statistics analyst at the ISQ, said in an interview on Tuesday.
“It’s really the effect of aging, but also the fact that there are fewer young people entering the job market. So, this increases the weight of those aged 55 and over,” explained Mr. Cloutier-Villeneuve.
Other factors can play a role, such as the fact that we stay in good health longer, and therefore work longer.
He believes that the factor of public policies to encourage the retention or return to work of experienced employees also has an influence.
And he notes that there is a certain “obligation to have to work longer” to have access to retirement among those who do not have sufficiently high income.
Similar remuneration and inflation
Furthermore, the average remuneration of employees in Quebec reached $32.39 per hour.
And contrary to what we often hear, “average hourly remuneration and inflation grew at a similar rate in 2023”, i.e. 4.6% compared to 4.5%, notes the ISQ.
Even taking a step back, the observation remains: “during the period 2013-2023, average hourly remuneration increased by 39.3%, while the CPI increased by 26.2%,” specifies the ISQ .
“Before the pandemic, there were wage growths that exceeded inflation. And it was, all in all, quite limited, inflation. So, there were gains in purchasing power observed from year to year,” adds Mr. Cloutier-Villeneuve.