Job prospects Public Health Nurse in Québec

Explore current and future job prospects for people working as a "public health nurse" in Québec or across Canada.

Job opportunities in Québec

These outlooks were updated on November 29, 2023.

Prospects over the next 3 years

The employment outlook will be good for Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses (NOC 31301) in Quebec for the 2023-2025 period.

The following factors contributed to this outlook:

• Employment growth will lead to several new positions.
• Not many positions will become available due to retirements.
• There are a small number of unemployed workers with recent experience in this occupation.

This occupation is in high demand, which is driven by the growing and aging population as well as government healthcare priorities.

Every year, the government is adding measures and increasing budgets to improve services and make them more accessible for the public, which involves additional hiring.

Employment growth will also be supported by several seniors' homes opening and by improvements to home care.

To deal with the surgery backlog, which was caused by managing the pandemic, the government intends to rely on private clinics more, which will also support this profession.

The nursing labour shortage, which became worse during the pandemic, affects most regions in Quebec. The government has introduced measures to support recruitment, including scholarships and a major international recruitment plan.

University graduates are in high demand given that managers in the health care system prefer to hire staff who are more multi-skilled. There are more university graduates in the workforce. A university education in nursing is increasingly required to get certain positions, particularly in local community service centres and family medicine groups.

While the employment outlook for this occupation is good at the provincial level, it will be moderate in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Here are some key facts about Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses in Quebec:

• Approximately 70,500 people work in this occupation.
• Registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses mainly work in the following sectors:
  • Hospitals (NAICS 622): 78%
  • Ambulatory health care services (NAICS 621): 9%
  • Nursing and residential care facilities (NAICS 623): 6%
• The distribution of full-time and part-time workers in this occupation is:
  • Full-time workers: 80% compared to 82% for all occupations
  • Part-time workers: 20% compared to 18% for all occupations
• 72% of registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses work all year, while 28% work only part of the year, compared to 62% and 38% respectively among all occupations. Those who worked only part of the year did so for an average of 45 weeks compared to 43 weeks for all occupations.
• Less than 5% of registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses are self-employed compared to an average of 12% for all occupations.
• The gender distribution of people in this occupation is:
  • Men: 12% compared to 52% for all occupations
  • Women: 88% compared to 48% for all occupations
• The educational attainment of workers in this occupation is:
  • no high school diploma: less than 5% compared to 12% for all occupations
  • high school diploma or equivalent: less than 5% compared to 19% for all occupations
  • apprenticeship or trades certificate or diploma: less than 5% compared to 19% for all occupations
  • college certificate or diploma or university certificate below bachelor's: 42% compared to 22% for all occupations
  • bachelor's degree: 45% compared to 17% for all occupations
  • university certificate, degree or diploma above bachelor level: 8% compared to 11% for all occupations

Breakdown by region

Explore job prospects in Québec by economic region.

Source Labour Market Information | Prospects Methodology

Labour market conditions over the next 10 years

Explore current and future job prospects for people working as a "public health nurse" in Québec or across Canada.

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