Unemployment rates, Canada and the United States

The unemployment rate gap narrows between the two countries

• In the last decade, the Canadian unemployment rate (adjusted to the U.S. definition) reached a high of 10.8% in 1993, declined to a low of 6.1% in 2000, and then increased again to 6.9% by 2003. The U.S. unemployment rate reached a high of 7.5% in 1992 and fell to a low of 4.0% in 2000, only to increase to 6.0% by 2003.
• This significant increase in the American unemployment rate in the last few years has narrowed the gap between the two countries. In fact, the Canadian rate is now less than 1 percentage point higher than the U.S. rate. The last time the gap was so small was in 1982.
• The Canadian unemployment rate has been higher than the American rate throughout most of the previous three decades. The gap widened the most in 1984 and 1985 and again from 1991 to 1999. During these periods, the Canada-U.S. unemployment rate gap ranged from 3 to 4 percentage points.

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