Quebec's 2020 Employment Stats Are In & We Haven't Lost This Many Jobs Since 1976

Many of us suspected it, but new data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ) confirms it. Quebec's job loss was significant in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — in fact, the province hasn't seen such a big drop in jobs since 1976 (which, in case you don't like math, was 45 years ago). 

Between 2019 and 2020, jobs decreased by 5% in Quebec — a loss of 208,500 jobs, according to the ISQ.

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The ISQ reported that the number of unemployed Quebecers rose to almost 400,000 in 2020, which contributed to an 8.9% unemployment rate in the province. 

Comparatively, the unemployment rate in 2019 was 5.1%.

According to the data, most of the job losses occurred in the private sector and among the self-employed, with 178,500 and 30,300 lost jobs, respectively.

Overall, job losses were concentrated in non-unionized workers and "establishments with fewer than 20 employees."

While there was "no significant variation in the public sector," part-time employment and full-time employment saw significant declines.

The decline was greater for part-time workers, with a 13% decline compared to only 2.9% for full-time workers. 

More women (113,100) lost their jobs compared to men (95,400) between 2019 and 2020. Yet women's unemployment rate remained lower, on average.

Young workers aged 15 to 24 lost around 69,000 jobs and their unemployment rate doubled to 17.2% in 2020. 

Job losses weren't unique to Quebec, however, as nearly a million jobs were lost in Canada during the pandemic.