Labour market dynamics in Canada The most striking thing about the Canadian recovery has been the performance of the labour market (Chart 9). All 400,000 jobs lost in the recession have now been recovered. While the unemployment rate remains high at 8.1 per cent, this reflects in the aggregate the movement of more people into the labour force.
With this, the incidence of longer term unemployment in Canada is about half that in the United States. However welcome, these headline figures mask some important details. Much of the employment growth is in the public sector, with only half of the new jobs in the private sector. Many jobs are involuntary part-time.