“Historic” wage growth in Quebec: a 10% increase in 12 months

For the first time in six years, the wages posted by companies jumped by 10%, between 2021 and 2022, underlines the Institut du Québec (IDQ), which describes this growth as “historic”.

Between the fourth quarter of 2021 and that of 2022, offered wages soared by 10%, which demonstrates the extent of the overheating of employment.

“This historic growth is explained by the enormous pressure on the labor market and because the positions are very difficult to fill”, summarizes Emna Braham, director general of the IDQ.

“Half of the vacancies for the quarter in question had been vacant for more than 90 days,” she notes.

In manufacturing, more than 65% of vacant positions had been vacant for more than three months, compared to 57% in transportation and machinery or 43% in sales.

According to Jo-Anne Dittmann, director of two offices of the human resources firm brh, workers still have the big end of the stick.

“It’s pretty amazing. We see very high salaries for people who have a secondary five in the factory, ”she notes every day.

“On the other hand, it affects SMEs because their production costs increase and their products too,” she adds.

For Emna Braham, the effects of the pandemic continue to be felt in the Quebec economy.

“There are sectors that never got their workers back. In catering and accommodation, there were 30,000 fewer jobs during this period,” she observes.

Much less in construction

While wage growth for the whole industry reached 10%, the increase was half that in construction, at 5%.

For Jeff Blackburn, a specialized laborer looking for a job, the current slowdown in housing starts is hurting in the context of inflation.

“The cost of living increases a lot compared to wages. Lately, I noticed that it was a problem”, testifies it.

“Everything is going up drastically, while we are not working less hard,” says the resident of Longueuil, who is looking for a job on the island of Montreal.

“Follow the Parade”

In the retail trade, wages posted by employers have increased by 8% in one year, notes the Institut du Québec.

“Companies had no choice but to follow the parade,” confirms Manuel Champagne, general manager at Retail Quebec.

“All job categories have increased significantly,” he says.

Last spring, a cashier had a median salary of $15.46 an hour and a sales assistant, $16.38 an hour, according to a survey by the organization.

More specialized positions pay better, such as e-commerce manager at $47.79 per hour or digital media specialist at $26.80 per hour.

In the competitive world of tech where six-figure salaries abound, employees aren’t shy about demanding more money either.

Maintain your standard of living

“It’s not that they can’t pay for their groceries, but they’re used to a certain standard of living that they don’t want to lose,” says Max Trudel, chief operating officer of the firm Voilà! of forty employees.

“People aren’t shy about negotiating, both internally and externally,” he says.

But for Éric Larouche, an experienced executive in the forest industry, the increase in wages cannot be explained by itself by the shortage of talent.

“The strength of the economy in natural resources helped accelerate that, and then there was some catch-up, especially in trades,” he concludes.

Even though accommodation and catering has seen a 30% decline in the number of vacancies, the sector still has a vacancy rate of 8.4%, according to the Institut du Québec