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.

The world’s economy is set to shrink 2.9 percent this year, and the recovery, when it comes, will be less marked than hoped for, states the World Bank’s Global Development Finance 2009: Charting a Global Recovery, which is published today, 22 June. The forecast shows the economy slowing more than the World Bank predicted in March, when it said 1.7 percent. Poor countries especially are affected. With the economic downturn in richer countries, poorer ones depend  more than ever on exports, remittances and foreign direct investment. The funding gap for these countries in 2009 is expected to be between $350 billion and $635b. The bank also revised downwards its predictions for growth in the US to a 3 percent contraction in 2009, while Japan’s economy will shrink 6.8 percent. Bloomberg, World Bank