Photo: Richard Coté · CC BY-SA 4.0Frontenac has fewer jobs than residents in work: 0.2 for each
Getting to work from Frontenac takes 16.1 minutes on average, an hour or more for 2.5%. Joblessness at the 2021 census: 6% of Frontenac’s labour force; the middle of Canadian towns is 9.9%. Median household income in Frontenac was $77,500 in 2020, next to $85,900 for the middle of Canadian towns.
Work in Frontenac: the figures worth knowing
More people in work than most towns
Of residents aged 15 to 64, 81% held a job in 2021; the middle of Canadian towns is 73%, and over all adults the share is 59%. In work ↓
Less unemployment than most towns
Unemployment was 6% at the 2021 census, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns. The Labour Force Survey for the wider area read 3.7% in October 2026. Unemployment ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
The average trip to work is 16.1 minutes (26 in the middle of Canadian towns), and 2.5% last an hour or longer. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Frontenac grades A for jobs and income
Better than 93% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, household income.
Graded against Canadian towns of 2,500 people or more; less unemployment and a shorter commute count in its favour.
How the grade works
Census 2021 measures, weighed equally against every Canadian town and neighbourhood of 2,500 people or more: the share of residents aged 15 to 64 in work, median household income (2020), the unemployment rate and the average commute. Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
How many in Frontenac have a job: 81% of 15-to-64s
A larger share in work than in 78% of Canadian towns.
Participation, the share of residents 15 and over working or looking for work, came to 63%. An older population pulls the all-ages rate down: 59% of residents 15 and over were in work. A more recent figure, for the wider area: 58% in work in October 2026, by the Labour Force Survey. May 2021, when the census was taken, was a pandemic spring; unemployment has come down since, as the Labour Force Survey records.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: people in work of any age over residents aged 15 to 64, and the census unemployment rate (15 and over); the 25-to-54 rate is Statistics Canada’s own (98-10-0485). The Labour Force Survey and business counts are context, not grade inputs.
Commuting times in Frontenac
A quarter-hour or less for 62% of commuters, against 31% in the middle of Quebec’s towns. Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 14.4 minutes. The middle of Quebec’s towns averages 26.5 minutes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: commuting duration in five bands; our average uses each band’s middle (75 minutes for an hour or more), so it runs about two minutes above Statistics Canada’s own.
Frontenac empties a little on a working day
For every person who comes in to work, about 14 residents travel out. Of those who commute, 9.5% stay within the municipality; the middle of Canadian towns is 70%.
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
91% of Frontenac’s residents in work leave it to work; Lac-Mégantic takes the most
- Saint-Augustin-de-Woburn25
- Lac-Mégantic10
- Lac-Mégantic490
- Nantes30
- Sherbrooke25
- Sainte-Cécile-de-Whitton20
- Saint-Augustin-de-Woburn15
- Lac-Drolet15
Coming the other way, Saint-Augustin-de-Woburn sends the most (25).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
What households in Frontenac earn
Before tax, 2020: higher than in 51% of Canadian towns.
That puts Frontenac 5% above the median of Quebec’s towns, $74,100. Read the incomes as 2020’s, before tax: pandemic benefits such as CERB are in them, and they raised many low incomes for that year.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Frontenac gets to work without a car for 4.3% of commuters
Fewer worked at home than in the middle of Canadian towns: 5.7% against 21%. Transit barely figures here, against 3.5% in the middle of Canadian towns. Nearly everyone drives: 92% of commuters go by car, truck or van.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
33% more people are on EI in the Le Granit census division than in 2019
January 2021 was the busiest month, with 1,260 people on EI, 3.1 times 2019’s average. That works out to around 4.2 beneficiaries per 100 people aged 15 to 64 across the division. Compared with a year earlier, the count in August 2026 fell by 13%.
Statistics Canada, Employment Insurance beneficiaries by census division (14-10-0323): all income benefits, not seasonally adjusted. EI beneficiaries: one figure for all of the Le Granit census division. EI counts are context, not part of any grade.
People receiving Employment Insurance each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
Walking in Frontenac earns C−
Better than 23% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Neighbouring places to Frontenac, compared
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontenac | 81% | 6% | $78K | 16.1 min | A | C− |
| Lac-Mégantic 4.7 km | 77% | 7.5% | $51K | 13.1 min | B− | A |
| Nantes 9 km | 79% | 6.7% | $68K | 16.8 min | B+ | C+ |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and the average commute, with both grades once they come.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Frontenac, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Unemployment. A census-day figure: people without a job who were looking, divided by all those working or looking, ages 15 and up.
- Household income. Before-tax total income of the middle household for 2020, from the census. Neighbourhood medians are worked out from bracket counts, since Statistics Canada publishes none of their own.
- Trip times. Built from banded answers: each commuter’s usual one-way trip counts as the midpoint of the band they chose, and the result tends to sit slightly higher than Statistics Canada’s average.
- Where people commute. Counts of workers with a fixed workplace, by where they live and where they work, both taken as whole municipalities; the jobs figure takes everyone who works here, wherever home is.
- Employment Insurance. How many people in the census division drew Employment Insurance each month; it moves with layoffs and hiring, yet people who don’t qualify are absent from it.
- The Labour Force Survey. The most recent unemployment rate on the page comes from this monthly survey, which covers the wider metro area or economic region, not the town.
- In work. Why 15 to 64? Otherwise retirees would pull the rate down in older towns. The census can’t say how old a neighbourhood’s workers are, so the count of people in work takes every age.
- Which towns we compare. Every town and city neighbourhood with 2,500 residents or more; whole cities and First Nations reserves are left out. Each middle figure is a median.
Questions about work in Frontenac
How many jobs are there in Frontenac?
Statistics Canada counted 55 businesses with employees in June 2026.
What is the unemployment rate in Frontenac?
The 2021 census found 6% unemployed, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns; the Labour Force Survey’s latest, for the Estrie economic region, is 3.7% (October 2026).
What is the average household income in Frontenac?
At $77,500 before tax in 2020, the median household in Frontenac compares with $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
How do people in Frontenac get to work?
Driving takes 92% of commuters to work, 4.3% walk, and on census day 5.7% of those in work were at home.
How long is the commute from Frontenac?
About 16.1 minutes on average, with 62% under a quarter-hour and 2.5% at an hour or longer.
Where do people in Frontenac work?
9.5% work in Frontenac itself. Of those who leave, the most go to Lac-Mégantic (490), then Nantes (30).
Sources: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population (Census Profile) · Statistics Canada, tables 98-10-0458 and 98-10-0459 (commuting) · Statistics Canada, table 14-10-0323 (EI beneficiaries) · Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey (14-10-0459, 14-10-0462) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Business Counts (33-10-1176) · grades: TownRatings. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).