Answer to Question #11340 in Finance for LIM BOON HUA

Question

The comparison of unemployment rate between two countries & its reasons.

Answer 1

At 8.1% the unemployment rate in the United States is about one percentage point above the 7.2% currently reported for Canada, but this gap would be almost two percentage points if the Canadian rate was measured in the same way as the American.
The Canadian unemployment rate would be lower if only those actively looking for a job were used to calculate the unemployment rate. This subtle difference in statistical method implies that the unemployment rate gap between the two countries is much bigger than it seems when looked through the lens of the official statistics..