And employment has been growing strongly, taking the national unemployment rate down to an 18-year low of just under 7%. Nova Scotia’s economy has also done well this past year, both in terms of output and employment growth. Indeed, when it comes to job creation through the year (that is, December 1999 over December 1998), Nova Scotia has done better than the national average.
A number of factors have supported the economic upswing in Canada. On the external side, we have greatly benefited from an amazingly strong US market. A pickup in growth in Europe and a recovery in some of the Asian economies that were most hurt by the financial crisis have also helped.