Over 40 per cent of unemployed U.S. workers are long-term unemployed (compared with 18 per cent of Canada’s unemployed workers). And the American unemployment rate stands 1 percentage point above Canada’s (and a full 2 percentage points when measured on a like-for-like basis). While Canada’s labour market has performed better than most other G-7 economies, we all know there is still slack (Chart 4).
That doesn’t prevent me from thinking that for the global economy to get out of this difficult period we have to count very much on Brazil, on Mexico, on China, on India, and on all other major emerging economies. That’s absolutely clear. The potential for global growth is there.