Canada's unemployment mosaic, 2000 to 2006

The unemployment rate is a well-known barometer of labour-market health. The rise in the national unemployment rate in the years immediately following the high-tech meltdown has been replaced by sustained annual declines. Of course not all parts of the country have shared equally in the improvement. The article tracks the range of unemployment rates for local labour markets (the 28 census metropolitan areas [CMAs] and the 10 provincial non-CMA areas). It also looks at the relative durations of unemployment.