Photo: Richard Coté · CC BY-SA 4.0Saint-Benjamin has fewer jobs than residents in work: 0.1 for each
In May 2021, unemployment in Saint-Benjamin reached 7.3%, next to 9.9% for the middle of Canadian towns. From Saint-Benjamin, the drive or ride to work averages 28.8 minutes, with 7.6% going an hour or longer. Before tax, the typical household in Saint-Benjamin brought in $70,800 in 2020; the middle of Canadian towns is $85,900.
What Saint-Benjamin’s work numbers say
Less unemployment than most towns
Unemployment was 7.3% at the 2021 census, against 9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns. The Labour Force Survey for the wider area read 2.3% in October 2026. Unemployment ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
Half the households here had more than $70,800 in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns. Household income ↓
Written from the data on this page: Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, its commuting tables, Employment Insurance and the Labour Force Survey.
Saint-Benjamin grades C for jobs and income
Better than 26% of Canadian towns on three measures together.
Its strongest measure is the share of 15-to-64s in work; its weakest, trip times.
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.
Work for 76% of 15-to-64s in Saint-Benjamin
A larger share in work than in 55% of Canadian towns.
The Labour Force Survey’s employment rate for the wider area was 61% in October 2026. 66% of residents aged 15 and over were in the labour force, in work or seeking it. Across all ages 15 and over the share in work falls to 61%: many residents are past working age. Census day was 11 May 2021, in the pandemic’s third wave: unemployment ran high and many worked from home, so these figures describe that spring rather than today.
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.
Earnings at home in Saint-Benjamin: households
Before tax, 2020: lower than in 64% of Canadian towns.
That puts Saint-Benjamin 4% below the median of Quebec’s towns, $74,100. Because 2020 was the first year of the pandemic, emergency benefits make up part of these before-tax incomes.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: median total income of households in 2020, before tax (a neighbourhood’s estimated from its dissemination areas’ income groups).
Saint-Benjamin is quieter on a working day than at night
305 residents of Saint-Benjamin had a usual place of work at the 2021 census, and 30 people had theirs in Saint-Benjamin, wherever they lived.
For every person who comes in to work, about 24 residents travel out. The job is inside the municipality for 5.9% of its commuters (70% in the middle of Canadian towns).
People with no fixed workplace are in neither count.
94% of Saint-Benjamin’s residents in work leave it to work; Saint-Georges takes the most
Coming the other way, Saint-Georges sends the most (15).
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census (98-10-0459): commuting flows between municipalities (census subdivisions), rounded to 5; linked names have their own pages.
2021 Census, people with a usual place of work: where residents of Saint-Benjamin work and where people who work there live, the ten largest each way.
Walk, cycle or ride transit: the choice of 2.2% of Saint-Benjamin’s commuters
Home was the workplace for 9.8%, under the 21% in the middle of Canadian towns. Hardly anyone takes transit to work, where the middle of Canadian towns has 3.5%. The car is the way to work for 98% of commuters.
Statistics Canada, 2021 Census: main mode of commuting; average durations by mode from table 98-10-0458 (whole municipalities only).
How residents who commute got to work, 2021 Census; working at home is counted apart.
How long the commute from Saint-Benjamin takes
Statistics Canada’s own average, timed exactly rather than by band, is 25.9 minutes. In the middle of Quebec’s towns, the average commute is 26.5 minutes. Trips under 15 minutes: 17%, fewer than the 31% in the middle of Quebec’s towns.
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.
Commuting time at the 2021 Census, to work only, for people who travel to a usual workplace or have none fixed.
13% more people are on EI in the Les Etchemins census division than in 2019
For each 100 residents of working age in the division, about 3.5 are on EI. Set against the same month a year before, the count in August 2026 fell by 3%. In January 2021 it reached 910, the most in the series and 2.7 times the 2019 average.
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 Les Etchemins 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).
Saint-Benjamin on foot: a D grade
Better than 9% of Canadian towns on two measures together.
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); active commuting from the 2021 Census.
Neighbouring places to Saint-Benjamin, compared
| Place | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Household income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Benjamin | 76% | 7.3% | $71K | 28.8 min | C | D |
| Saint-Prosper 9.5 km | 79% | 6.4% | $67K | 21.9 min | B | C+ |
| Notre-Dame-des-Pins 10.8 km | 87% | 7.4% | $80K | 18.4 min | A+ | C |
| Saint-Odilon-de-Cranbourne 10.8 km | 89% | 4.1% | $68K | 26.1 min | B | B− |
| Beauceville 14.1 km | 84% | 4.7% | $66K | 18.8 min | A− | C+ |
| Saint-Georges 15.3 km | 80% | 5.6% | $64K | 18.1 min | B+ | B− |
| Lac-Etchemin 18.4 km | 76% | 4.5% | $64K | 21.5 min | C+ | B |
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 Saint-Benjamin, where it comes from, and what it leaves out.
- Trip times. One way, on a usual day, from the census’s travel-time bands. Band midpoints overstate it a little next to the figure Statistics Canada times.
- Where people commute. Only people with a usual place of work are in it: those who work from home or have no fixed site are not. Home and work are both counted by municipality.
- 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. Working residents per resident of working age (15 to 64), from the 2021 Census.
- 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. The 2020 income of the household at the midpoint, all sources and before tax. Inside a city we rebuild it from the dissemination areas’ income bands, so there it is an estimate.
- Which towns we compare. The comparison pool is places of 2,500 people or more, towns or neighbourhoods inside cities, without whole cities or reserves, and we compare with its median.
Questions about work in Saint-Benjamin
How do people in Saint-Benjamin get to work?
Driving takes 98% of commuters to work, 2.2% walk, and on census day 9.8% of those in work were at home.
How long is the commute from Saint-Benjamin?
About 28.8 minutes on average, with 17% under a quarter-hour and 7.6% at an hour or longer.
Where do people in Saint-Benjamin work?
Only 5.9% work in Saint-Benjamin itself; the rest go first to Saint-Georges (130) and Saint-Prosper (50).
How many jobs are there in Saint-Benjamin?
Statistics Canada counted 36 businesses with employees in June 2026.
What is the unemployment rate in Saint-Benjamin?
On census day in May 2021, unemployment stood at 7.3% of the labour force (9.9% in the middle of Canadian towns). For a recent figure, the Labour Force Survey put the Chaudière-Appalaches economic region at 2.3% in October 2026.
What is the average household income in Saint-Benjamin?
The median household in Saint-Benjamin had $70,800 before tax in 2020, against $85,900 in the middle of Canadian towns.
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).