The French Factor: How language shapes employment in Québec

2025 - 11 - 26

Contributors

Executive Summary

Morgan Gagnon, Policy Researcher, Provincial Employment Roundtable – PERT

Adrita Rahman, Policy Research Associate, Provincial Employment Roundtable – PERT

Connor McLevy, Policy Research Intern, Provincial Employment Roundtable – PERT

While recent research has mythbusted the idea that English-speaking Quebecers enjoy a better socioeconomic position than French speakers in the province, little attention has been paid to the specific role of language proficiency. This report seeks to address that gap, establishing that within Québec’s two linguistic communities, bilingualism – and its inverse, unilingualism – are correlated with employment and economic outcomes. More specifically, while English speakers as a whole fare worse in the labour market, unilingual English speakers experience the worst disparities.

Our key findings are:

Unilingual English speakers make up 5.3% of the province’s total population, and 4.8 % of its labour force;
Unilingual English speakers tend to work in industries and occupations where French language proficiency may be a lesser requirement: their top three industries are manufacturing (employing 11.9%), professional, scientific, and technical services (11.4%), and retail trade (9.6%);
Unilingual English speakers have an unemployment rate of 13.5%, approximately double that of both unilingual French speakers (7.3%) and bilingual French speakers (6.6%);
Unilingual English speakers have a poverty rate of 15.7%, approximately triple that of both unilingual French speakers (6.2%) and bilingual French speakers (5.3%);
Unilingual English speakers have a median employment income of $24,000, earning $8,800 less than unilingual French speakers and $17,600 less than bilingual French speakers.