Canada created 27,000 jobs in August while the US lost 216,000 jobs during the same month, raising hopes in Canada that the national economy, which is highly dependent on its huge southern neighbour, the US, may have decoupled from it. The Canadian unemployment rate nevertheless rose slightly to 8.7 percent as the number of people looking for jobs still outpaced the jobs available. Since October 2008, which was the peak employment level in the current cycle, 387,000 fulltime jobs have disappeared, a decline of 2.3 percent.

Unemployment in the US climbed to 9.7 percent, its highest rate since 1983, according to the US Department of Labor.