Montréal, August 11, 2020 – Compared to the same period last year (March to June), Québec’s economy lost some 450,000 jobs due to COVID-19—a 10% drop from 2019 when total employment was 4,327,500 jobs (average from March to June). These findings, published today in Institut de la statistique du Québec’s Marché du travail et rémunération bulletin, are based on Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS).
The hardest hit sectors are accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, and manufacturing.
Just over 365,000 service industry jobs were lost in the aforementioned period. It is estimated that accommodation and food services lost nearly 100,000 jobs, the wholesale/retail sector some 75,000 jobs, and manufacturing close to 50,000 jobs.
Changing Québec Employment Numbers1 by Industry, March–June 2019 to March–June 2020
1. Four-month average. Seasonally adjusted data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (LFS), 2020. Adapted by Institut de la statistique du Québec.
Women and youth hit harder by job losses
Between March–June 2019 and March–June 2020, women seem to have lost more jobs than men did (238,100 vs. 209,100).
Young people aged 15 to 24 were proportionally harder hit than other age groups, with a near 25% drop in employment (132,300 jobs lost).
Changing Québec employment numbers1 by gender and age group, March–June 2019 to March–June 2020
1. Four-month average. Seasonally adjusted data.
Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (LFS), 2020. Adapted by Institut de la statistique du Québec.
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