There is good news for those wanting to apply for work in Quebec, as they have recently released a fresh list of occupations which are in demand and that benefit from facilitated processing under the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process.
What is the List About?
Quebec has significantly expanded the list since last year’s list only included a total of 181 occupations that hold eligible positions. Fortunately, we are delighted to announce that there’s now a total of 228 occupations that are eligible for facilitated processing on the list. Quebec decided to formulate the list by taking the labor requirements of all regions into consideration.
The new list was officially released yesterday and will take effect immediately. Although, there is a 30-day interim period which allows for the employer, or their agents, to have applications made under the previous year’s list evaluated.
Every year, at least once a year on February 24th, the Quebec Ministry of Immigration sends out a new list of professions. The list ensures that companies who want to hire temporary foreign workers will benefit from a facilitated Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) process. However, the main goal of this entire operation is to largely encourage the arrival of temporary foreign workers in the province to maintain jobs in industries where there is an urgent labour shortage. It is designed to help employers who cannot find Canadian or workers who have permanent residency to help fill their available job vacancies.
Quebec is facing a major drop in its birth rate as well as an ageing population on the rise. The province has currently, the second highest job vacancy rate in Canada. A recent December report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 64% of small businesses in Quebec have reported suffering extreme labour shortages in the province.
The Quebec government has estimated that new arrivals, especially the temporary workers from abroad, will fill up 22% of job openings by the year 2026. With the need for further labour on the rise, the Quebec government has been actively adapting its immigration policies to enable more immigrants to come into the province for work.
