The share of the Canadian adult population working is at a historic high: 74% in 2007, or an increase of 3 percentage points since 2000, according to a recent OECD report. This result is well above the OECD average of 67%, and higher than that of the U.S. by 2 percentage points. However, estimates show that Canadian wages in 2006 were still almost one-quarter lower than in the U.S. in terms of purchasing power parity.
OECD nevertheless projects a moderate rise in unemployment in 2009 in Canada as a period of slower growth results from difficult credit market conditions, which have spread far beyond their origins in the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. The report also says that while strong export income from extractive industries probably won't be enough to decouple Canada from the slowdown in the U.S., the labour market should be less affected north of the border. According to OECD projections, Canada and the U.S. should have about the same unemployment rate in 2009, ending a long period in which the Canadian unemployment rate exceeded the U.S. rate.