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.

Room to Grow: Comparing Urban Density in Canada and Abroad compares population densities in 30 metropolitan centres in high-income developed countries, and finds that Canadian cities—including Toronto and Vancouver, which are experiencing an affordability crunch—can accommodate much more housing supply as they have much lower population densities than other major urban centres around the world.

Economic Freedom of North America 2017 finds that New Hampshire—the Live Free or Die state—has the highest level of economic freedom among all U.S. states for the third year in a row, scoring 8.3 out of 10 in this year’s report, which measures government spending, taxation and labour market restrictions. Florida, Texas, South Dakota and Tennessee round out the top five freest states. For the third year in a row New York was the least-free state in the country at 50th, and California ranked 49th.