The greater Quebec region experienced its strongest population growth in 30 years last year. Despite this, the labor shortage has continued to worsen, and the job vacancy rate remains very high. Like everywhere, in fact.
The National Capital was full of new citizens last year, reveals data from the “Panorama of the regions of Quebec”, published Wednesday morning by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec.
The population growth rate there increased from 0.52% in 2020-2021 to 1.42% in 2021-2022, “the highest rate recorded by this region since data became available at the regional level. , i.e. since 1986-1987,” note government statisticians.
All things considered, Lanaudière, the Laurentides and Estrie (+16.9‰, +16.1‰, +16‰) still remain the regions where the population is growing the fastest.
The economy is so strong in Quebec that this increase in the number of workers is not enough to fill all the job offers. More than 2,600 new vacancies were posted last year, bringing the vacancy rate there to 7%.
For all of Quebec, there are now 233,500 vacant positions in total, an increase of approximately 29,200 (+14%) compared to 2021.
Employers are bidding up to fill these positions. The average hourly wage offered for their empty seats reached $23.39 per hour for all regions last year, representing an increase of $1.55 (+7.1%) compared to the average hourly wage in 2021.
More construction, fewer owners
For the first time since 1971 in Quebec, the proportion of owners has decreased in the population. This rate decreased by 1.4 percentage points between 2016 and 2021, to stand at 59.9%. The decrease in the property rate exceeds 2 percentage points in the regions of Laval (– 2.8 percentage points), Lanaudière (– 2.4 percentage points) and Montérégie (– 2.1 percentage points ). Only Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean resisted this decline among all the regions.
However, spending on residential construction has continued to increase and is showing vigorous growth. The amount spent on construction or renovation increased by 8.4% between 2021 and 2022. This increase, however, is less significant than that observed the previous year (+ 36.3%).
More details will follow.
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.