The French Factor : How Language Shapes Employment in Québec

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.