Despite the worrying times, Canada’s labour markets continued to be healthy in October 2008, according to Statistics Canada. The year-over-year employment gain nationwide was +1.3%, which is in keeping with the long-term average, and the unemployment rate was 6.2%. In a rare occurrence, Canada’s jobless rate was below the level recorded in the United States (6.5%).

As for how the individual cities in Canada are performing, the West is continuing to do better than the East, despite the fact that commodity prices are pulling back as a result of the worldwide economic slowdown. The most readily apparent adjustment has come in oil prices, down by about two-thirds versus the early days of this past summer.

The West has the Lowest Unemployment …