Historic drop in Quebec’s unemployment rate at 3.9% in April

After growing in four of the past six months, employment remained relatively stable across the country in April, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.

While the full-time employment sector remained flat, part-time employment gained 47,000 new jobs filled last month, or 1.3% more than it did in March.

Employment gains in professional, scientific and technical services, and public administration were offset by declines in construction and retailshows Statistics Canada in its April 2022 Labor Force Survey.

The federal agency said total hours worked fell 1.9% last month in Canada, mainly due to higher sickness absences driven by the sixth wave of COVID-19 that peaked in several provinces in April.

And at the provincial level, unemployment has fallen in 6 out of 10 provinces: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta.

Historic drop in unemployment in Quebec

Unemployment fell the most in Newfoundland and Labrador, falling from 12.9% in March to 10.8% in April.

However, Quebec’s unemployment rate is currently the lowest in the country at a historical rate of 3.9%, down 0.2 percentage points from the March data. All this despite a decline of 27 thousand jobs registered in April in the province.

In Ontario, the unemployment rate rose slightly last month (+0.1) to 5.4%, while it rose by 0.5 percentage point in Saskatchewan (5.5%) and by 0.3 percentage point in British Columbia (5.4%).