Resumen de Provincial Disparities and Structural Unemployment in Canada

Sandra Hanson Mcpherson, Oscar Flores

• We examine Canadian provincial structural unemployment by estimating the unemployment-vacancy relationship (Beveridge curve) for ten provinces and find that from 1988 to 2002 structural unemployment fell primarily in western provinces. A breakdown of the causes of provincial structural unemployment using a SURE estimation reveals that the generosity of the employment insurance is an important variable in the West while the mix of structural variables appear to be important for central and eastern Canada. We are unaware of any other studies evaluating the Beveridge curve at the provincial level for this period which was one of historically high unemployment for Canada.