Why the Unemployment Rate is No Longer a Reliable Gauge of Labour Market Performance finds that, as Canada’s population ages and more and more Canadians retire and exit the workforce, the employment rate is more reflective of Canada’s labour market. Despite a drop in the unemployment rate from 2008 to 2017, due in part to the shifting demographics, the employment rate also fell from during the same time from 63.4 per cent to 61.6 per cent, indicating declining employment levels.
