In the past, regional shocks would have led to a persistent divergence in employment rates across provinces. Between 1976 and 1997, the average difference between employment rates in any one province and the national rate was 5.5 percentage points. This was much higher than the corresponding gap in the United States.
But the gap in Canada has now shrunk to U.S. levels, below 4 percentage points, as we explain in a staff analytical note posted on our website today.