With strict coronavirus restrictions across Quebec, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the unemployment rate across the province was one of the highest ever.
New data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) shows that between 2019 and 2020, there was a 5.1% drop in employment in Quebec resulting in a loss of 165,000 jobs.
However, the number of unemployed people rose to almost 400,000 in 2020 in Quebec, a significant increase compared to 2019.
As for the unemployment rate, it fell from 5.1% in 2019 to 8.9% in 2020.
According to the ISQ, the province hasn't seen such a huge decline since 1976.
Across Canada, nearly 1 million jobs (- 986,400) were lost in 2020 due to COVID-19, which represents a decline in employment of 5.2% from 2019.
The report also shows that some groups have been more affected than others by the job losses. Between 2019 and 2020, more women lost their jobs (- 113,100) than men (- 95,400); however, the unemployment rate for women remained almost on the same level as men (8.6% vs. 9.1%) in 2020.
Young workers, aged 15 to 24, saw a loss of around 69,000 jobs, and their unemployment rate doubled between 2019 (8.5%) and 2020 (17.2%).
In comparison, in 2020, the unemployment rate was 7.3% among those aged 25-54 and 8.3% among those aged 55 and over.
