Labour Markets

Topic Box from the 2011 Tenth Annual Benchmark Report

Several measures show that Canada's labour market has recovered faster than those of other OECD countries since the crisis peak in 2009. Canada's unemployment rate was close to the OECD average prior to the recession and at its peak. By the second quarter of 2011 however, Canada's unemployment rate had fallen by a full percentage point while the average was down by 0.6 percentage points.

Further, in Q1 2011, Canada's long-term unemployment rate was two-fifths that of the OECD average (13 vs. 35 percent).

However, the employment rate of low-skilled workers in Canada declined five percentage points between the first quarters of 2008 and 2011, about double the observed decline in OECD countries.

Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD Employment Outlook, 2011.