More than one in six private sector establishments that required bilingualism expected difficulties hiring bilingual employees

Released: 2024-02-06

In the third quarter of 2023, 45.4% of private sector establishments in Quebec and 35.4% of those in New Brunswick required English–French bilingualism for some of their positions. This was the case for 1 in 10 establishments or less in each of the other provinces and in the territories.

In addition, at the national level, the proportion of private sector establishments expecting difficulties in recruiting employees who can work in both English and French (5.5%) was relatively stable in the third quarter of 2023 compared with one year earlier (5.8%). Overall, slightly more than one in six private sector business establishments (18.2%) that required bilingualism for some of their positions also expected difficulties in recruiting bilingual staff, compared with 25.0% one year earlier.

These findings are from the Canadian Survey on Business Conditions for the third quarter of 2023. In this survey of private sector business establishments, information was collected on the proportion of positions requiring English–French bilingualism and on expected obstacles over the following three months, including recruitment difficulties. Private sector businesses are defined as non-governmental businesses, whether for-profit or non-profit.

The job requirement of knowledge of English and French is more common in regions where a large proportion of the potential workforce is bilingual

Many factors may explain why some establishments require English–French bilingualism for some of their positions, including to communicate with all their employees, customers, suppliers or local partners.

In the third quarter of 2023, 15.7% of private business establishments in Canada required bilingualism for at least one of their positions. The requirement of bilingualism differed greatly by place of business. The regions with the highest proportion of establishments requiring bilingualism are generally those where there is a pool of available labour with the language skills corresponding to these positions.

In Quebec, 45.4% of establishments required bilingualism for some of their positions in the third quarter of 2023, compared with 35.4% in New Brunswick, where English and French are official languages.

In Canada, excluding Quebec and New Brunswick, 7.4% of establishments required bilingualism for some of their positions in the third quarter of 2023. Ontario (9.8%) was above this average, in part because of the large urban centre of Ottawa (15.4%), an area with a high rate of bilingualism among the workforce and the general population.

In Nova Scotia and in all the territories, about 1 in 15 establishments required bilingualism for at least one of its positions in the third quarter of 2023. In the western provinces, as well as in Newfoundland and Labrador—regions of the country where a small proportion of the population speaks French—at most 1 in 20 establishments required bilingualism.

In the third quarter of 2023, the proportion of establishments requiring bilingualism was higher in the large urban areas of Gatineau (74.1%), Montréal (58.4%), Québec (42.7%) and Sherbrooke (37.2%).

Chart 1 
The proportion of private sector establishments requiring bilingualism varies markedly across large urban areas

Conversely, the proportion of establishments requiring bilingualism was lower in census metropolitan areas (CMAs) outside Quebec and New Brunswick in the third quarter of 2023. Just over 1 in 15 establishments in Toronto (6.9%) and Calgary (6.9%) required bilingualism for some of their positions. It should be noted that the Toronto CMA ranked second only to Montréal for the number of establishments requiring bilingualism, having almost as many as the metropolitan areas of Québec, Gatineau and Sherbrooke combined.

English–French bilingualism is more often required by establishments in wholesale and retail trade

In the third quarter of 2023, in Quebec, English–French bilingualism was required for some positions in more than half of establishments in the wholesale and retail trade (50.4%), accommodation and food services (63.7%) and professional, scientific and technical services (64.4%) sectors. By contrast, bilingualism was required by relatively fewer establishments in the construction sector (24.2%).

The situation was similar in New Brunswick, where more than half (53.4%) of establishments in the wholesale and retail trade sector required bilingualism in the third quarter of 2023.

Outside Quebec and New Brunswick, about 1 in 10 establishments in wholesale and retail trade (9.5%) as well as in professional, scientific and technical services (9.5%) required bilingualism in the third quarter of 2023. At the same time, this was the case for about 1 in 16 establishments in construction (6.0%).

Difficulties recruiting bilingual staff are more frequent among establishments requiring English–French bilingualism for some of their positions

Challenges recruiting employees able to work in English and French were a perceived obstacle for 5.5% of private business establishments in Canada in the third quarter of 2023, a proportion similar to that in the same quarter of 2022 (5.8%) despite an easing in the labour market. In Quebec and New Brunswick, this proportion was higher than 10% in the third quarter of 2023.

This difficulty was more prevalent in regions where the proportion of the official language minority population was highest. While these regions have a relatively large pool of potentially bilingual labour, local clients or business partners are more likely to express themselves in either official language, creating greater demand for bilingual labour.

At the national level, among establishments requiring bilingualism for at least one of their positions, 18.2% expected challenges recruiting bilingual employees in the third quarter of 2023. This proportion was higher in Atlantic Canada (excluding New Brunswick) (32.6%) and was not statistically different from the Canadian average in the country's other regions.

In Canada overall, about 1 in 30 establishments (3.2%) in which no position formally required knowledge of both English and French expected to have difficulties in recruiting bilingual employees.

Contact information

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