English speakers still face barriers to labour market, report finds
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
English speakers in the Capitale-Nationale region lag behind their francophone counterparts in terms of average income, employment and full-time employment, a recent report by the Provincial Employment Round Table (PERT) has found.
Capitale-Nationale encompasses Quebec City and the surrounding rural regions – Charlevoix, Côte-de-Beaupré, Île d’Orléans, La Jacques-Cartier and Portneuf. There are just under 18,000 anglophones living in Capitale-Nationale, about 2.3 per cent of the region’s population. While there are small pockets of English speakers across the region, particularly in La Jacques-Cartier, which includes Shannon and Saint-Gabriel-de- Valcartier, most anglophones (nearly 15,000) live in the Quebec City area.
The report, released at an online event Oct. 30 and based on 2021 census data, provincial government statistics and more recent information gathered from interviews and focus groups, indicates that the unemployment rate among anglophones in the region is 9 per cent, compared to 6.7 per cent for francophones, and anglophones earn a median after-tax income of $36,800 compared to $39,200 for francophones. About 10 per cent of anglophones earn less than the provincial low-income cutoff, compared to five per cent of francophones. Anglophones are less likely to work full time and less likely to hold permanent jobs – 68.2 per cent of anglophone workers hold permanent positions compared to 74.8 per cent of francophones. Both groups have similar age and gender profiles and similar levels of educational attainment – the proportion of anglophones with a high school diploma (90.7 per cent) or a postsecondary degree (70.2 per cent) is slightly higher than that for francophones (86.8 per cent and 66.2 per cent respectively). Anglophones in the region are significantly more likely to be bilingual than their francophone counterparts – 84.6 per cent compared to just under 45 per cent.
“A significant concern among participants from Capitale-Nationale was the misalignment between the competencies and educational attainment of English speakers in the region and the jobs they work in. Participants described the issue of highly qualified English speakers who end up working in jobs for which they are overqualified or mismatched … often unrelated to the industry in which they are formally trained, owing to the difficulty of having their qualifications recognized or a French language barrier,” the report’s authors added.
No shortage of will, but a lack of opportunities
In focus groups of anglophones convened by PERT, participants stressed the need for accessible French-language training adapted to the workplace, initiatives to build up anglophones’ confidence in their French skills and more vocational training opportunities, PERT research lead Morgan Gagnon explained. They also described challenges with international credential recognition and a lack of support for English-speaking job seekers. English-speaking youth faced a particularly high unemployment rate (14.7 per cent), raising fears of “brain drain.”
Gagnon said the recent cuts to government-subsidized French language learning pro- grams in Quebec City, Loretteville and Lévis (see article in this edition) were “definitely concerning.”
PERT announced two new programs to support English speakers in the workplace – a bilingual mentorship program aimed at improving workers’ and job seekers’ French language skills and confidence and a support program for employers who want to launch or improve workplace French- language training programs in partnership with the provincial Secretariat for Relations with English-speaking Quebecers.
“We’re hoping the government can find a solution to improve and maintain access to classes through Francisation Québec, but we’re hoping that these two programs, though relatively small in the grand scheme of things, can help mitigate the loss of that resource,” said Gagnon.