Quebec unemployment rate falls slightly to 5.4%
January labour force survey reports 76,000 jobs added in Canada
Quebec's unemployment rate fell slightly in January, according to Statistics Canada's latest labour force survey published Friday.
Canada's labour market added 76,000 jobs in January, beating economist expectations. In Quebec, the unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 5.4 per cent.
In the country overall, the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.6 per cent.
It's the second consecutive monthly decline, following a recent peak in November of 6.9 per cent.
The manufacturing sector carried the largest employment gains, adding 33,000 jobs — a third of those coming from Ontario alone.
The Canadian public sector lost 8,400 jobs in January.
Wage growth also continued to decelerate, with hourly rates up 3.5 per cent year-over-year — the slowest pace of growth since April 2022.