The view from a lucky country: explaining the localised unemployment impacts of the Great Recession in Canada

The article assesses the impact of the Great Recession on 83 Canadian regions, focussing on the unemployment rate as principal indicator. A dual empirical approach is used: examination of regional unemployment rate variations before, during and after the recession using a labour supply and demand framework; examination of the determinants of regional variations via a spatial econometric model. The findings reveal that Canadian labour markets reacted on the whole as expected to the Great Recession, labour supply adjusting to falling labour demand, thus keeping (rising) unemployment rates in check, although rarely completely. Small, rural regions were often most responsive. The primary determinant of regional variations in unemployment rates was found to be variations in neighbouring regions suggesting highly localised impacts.