Nearly 150,000 vacancies

The Quebec economy continues to lack labor, as many companies have to reject contracts or reduce their output. There are about 150,000 vacancies in Quebec.

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Joel Nore, a senior economist at the Desjardins Group, agreed that the number would continue to rise in the coming months. Why? Especially since the labor force is aging.

“Under the current circumstances, do these people want to continue to expose themselves? There may be fewer volunteers,” she warned. “The pandemic may have accelerated retirements as well.”

In the fourth quarter of 2020, between October and December, there were 148,460 vacancies in this province, or 21,730 more in the same period in 2019.

Today, this situation affects many companies, such as the multinational Bell, or the Connom Group, which says no to contracts, unable to produce all of its mini babybells on Quebec soil.

“It simply came to our notice then. Right now, we are refusing to work because we do not have people, ”said Marcel Duttil, chairman of Kenam Group Board, this week regarding the purchase of supermetall.

In recent weeks, when restaurant dining rooms opened, many entrepreneurs openly pointed out that they were unable to hire a workforce to meet their needs.

According to a report from the Institute du Quebec (IDQ), the most worrying areas of need are “health care and social assistance”.

“We can understand why. Depleted resources, unhealthy people and increased needs. These are the three reasons why we need more people,” he said.^{To me} Noreyu.

At 4 p.m.^E During the quarter, demand exploded in hospitals with 8,420 more vacancies than in 2019, according to an IDQ report.

The wholesale and retail trade and manufacturing sector also saw an increase in the number of job vacancies.

In the first quarter of 2021, according to Statistics Canada, 19.5% of businesses believe labor shortages will be a barrier. This percentage in manufacturing reached 23%.

“Recruitment will be challenging for the next few months (when industries that are currently in recession are starting up). We must not forget that the same thing happened before the epidemic,” he underlined.^{To me} Noreyu.

In recent months, the government has hired substantial sums of money to set up new programs to help job seekers who have been hit by the epidemic change their careers.

In a report, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business recently wrote that 67% of SMEs here face labor issues and 26% have had to reject sales or contracts.