Over half of young people speak only French at work, according to data from the OQLF

A business in Montreal's Gay Village includes text in both languages. (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

In Quebec, 53 per cent of young people aged 18 to 34 speak only French at work, according to figures released on Thursday by the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF).

However, this proportion is lower in Montreal and Gatineau, where workers are more often required to provide service in English.

The OQLF surveyed 6,008 young people between February and April 2021. Across the province as a whole, 38 per cent of the 18-34 year-olds surveyed said that they regularly use French and English at work.

However, the picture is different in Montreal and Gatineau, where working in both languages is more common. Half of young people in Montreal say they regularly use French and English at work. In the metropolis, 36 per cent of workers said they regularly worked only in French, and 10 per cent only in English.

The situation is similar in Gatineau, in the Outaouais region, where 39 per cent of respondents said they work only in French, 49 per cent in both French and English, and 11 per cent only in English.

However, the OQLF study reveals that 66 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds prefer to work in French. Conversely, 11 per cent prefer to work in English.

The document states that the proportion of workers for whom French is the only language spoken at work varies between 62 and 69 per cent in the census metropolitan areas (CMAs) of Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke. In the Saguenay CMA, 73 per cent of young workers use French as their main language at work.

Workers' education also has an impact on the language in which they carry out their professional duties, according to the OQLF.

Francophones who obtained a post-secondary diploma from a French-language institution in Quebec were proportionately more likely to prefer to work in French (80 per cent, the organization's study states).

As for the allophone population, made up of people who most often speak a language other than French or English at home, three-quarters of those who graduated from a French-language Quebec institution said they used French most often at work. Among those who studied in English, 24 per cent said they used French most often.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 15, 2023.