Employment in Quebec fell 0.6% in April and the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 3.9%, according to Statistics Canada.
The number of full-time jobs registered a low of 0.8% in the province between March and April 2022. This is a drop of 29,800 jobs.
This decline can be explained by a decrease in jobs in the construction and educational services sectors, according to the federal agency. Quebec is also the province that has seen one of the largest declines in construction jobs (-16,000, -5.4%).
However, workers in the public administration sector have been more numerous since last month, with an increase of 2.5%, or 6,700 jobs.
Conversely, more Quebecers obtained part-time work with 3,200 more jobs in April, which represents a jump of 0.4% compared to March and continues the growth seen in the previous months.
“The decrease in employment in April in Quebec may seem surprising. However, it follows two months of rapid growth (February and March) which more than offset the declines recorded in January, during the confinement at the start of the year,” explained Joëlle Noreau, senior economist at Desjardins.
In total, 19,100 jobs have been created in Quebec since the start of 2022.
The unemployment rate changed little from month to month in La Belle Province and remained at a low of 3.9%.
“In all likelihood, the unemployment rate should decline less rapidly in the coming months,” said Ms. Noreau.
The proportion of people aged 25 to 54 in the labor market in Quebec, which reached 89.5% in April, is still higher than that observed at the national level (88.4%).
In the census metropolitan area (CMA) of Montreal, the unemployment rate remained the same from one month to the next, remaining at 4.8% in April. However, employment fell by 0.9% in metropolitan France, or 20,400 fewer employees.
While the return to work in the office is gradually resuming across the country with the lifting of health restrictions, the Quebec part of the Ottawa-Gatineau CMA (39.4%) and the Quebec City CMA (32.9%) show rate of people working from home higher than the national average of 26.1%.
In Canada, the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 5.2% in April. Employment was little changed, rising 0.1% after two consecutive months of increases.
The neighboring province of Ontario saw little change in its numbers in April. Its unemployment rate stood at 5.4% (+0.1 pt), when employment increased by 0.2% in April. Same story for the Toronto CMA, where work increased by 8,300, or 0.2% compared to the previous month.