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The head of Quebec’s largest employers’ group can sum up the most important election issue for his members in one word: workers.

“We have a gap that is growing and growing between the number of workers that we need and the number of workers that are available,” said Yves-Thomas Dorval, the president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Québec.

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For more than two years, Quebec’s unemployment rate has been below the Canadian average, except for a single month in 2017 when those two rates were equal.

Even in the regions where the unemployment rate is well above the Quebec average, there’s still talk about the need for workers.

“In the city, we have full employment,” Denis Côté, the mayor of Gaspé, said in early September. “In the summer we have more than full employment; there’s an enormous shortage of workers in the summer.”

Where politicians once campaigned on promises to create jobs, Quebec’s main political parties are now promising to help employers fill empty positions.