Jobless figure south of the border dropped
From mid-2008 through the end of 2013, the unemployment rate in Canada was lower than in the U.S.
A significant milestone was reached at the start of this current year, 2014, when the jobless figure south of the border dropped back below our own. The relationship is now 6.1% in the U.S. and 7.0% in Canada.
Also earlier this year, the most important benchmark for U.S. jobs was exceeded. Total employment first reached, then surpassed, its pre-recession peak. Going forward, each new month of positive job creation will set an all-time high for total U.S. jobs.
America's more optimistic economic outlook is grounded in two industrial sectors, energy and manufacturing.
U.S. energy development is booming. Hydraulic fracturing (i.e., "fracking") of shale-rock natural gas and oil is adding immensely to reserves.
In North Dakota, firms are extracting oil from the Bakken Basin as fast as they can. As a result, the state has the nation's lowest overall unemployment rate (2.7%) and its lowest construction unemployment rate (5.6%).
The surfeit of oil and gas has provided one huge benefit. It has reduced the volume of foreign imports.
The resulting improvement in the goods trade balance — through offsetting some of the shortfall with China in consumer items, for example — lifts the bottom-line gross domestic product (GDP) figure.