High unemployment rate, strong Canadian dollars, weak global demand for Canadian products as well as fading government stimulus spending are several key challenges faced by Canada now. Among all the problems, joblessness is most largely concerned by the public. Job growth in Canada as a whole remains weak. While ‘the jobless rate dropped to 7.6 per cent from 7.9 per cent in November’, it is resulted more from fewer young people looking for work than from increasing jobs in the labour market. However, the good news for western people is that jobless rates are much lower (below the national average) in resource-rich West, compared to that in manufacturing-based East. The total amount of employments generated in manufacturing sectors declined to the lowest point. On the other hand, natural resources now are the fastest-growing source of employment. Statistics showed that ‘Ontario and Quebec have together lost more than 75,000 factory positions in the past year’. Moreover, the job creation in East is largely dependent on part time works. ‘Part-time work has grown 4 per cent from last year’. And ‘nearly 40 per cent of job growth since last November has been in part-time positions’, according to the Conference Board of Canada. From my analysis, the high unemployment rate in Canada is mainly lead by its high exchange rate. Exporting companies receive fewer revenues when their products are more expensive than the outputs of foreigners. To maintain the companies’ high profit, they will keep the labour cost low by hiring fewer workers. Thus, it explains why job creation is disappearing in the whole country, especially in the manufacturing sectors.
