Work it

As the Canada Day long weekend comes to an end, thoughts turn once more to the daily grind. Tomorrow, I'm back at work as usual, then busy through the early evening taking care of a little side project that will hopefully make me rich and famous some day soon (More info on this as it gets closer to completion).

That's modern life. But my normal routine is only "normal" by local standards. I have a job, but elsewhere, that basic foundation for all my other sub-routines is not so easy to come by.

Here in BC, the unemployment rate (according to a Statistics Canada report) is still around 4.5 per cent, thanks to the construction boom (Of course, since I'm not an architect or construction contractor, that rate would be somewhat inflated for me relative to my relevant skills...).

Next door in Alberta, the oil and gas boom continues to give high school graduates the chance to make six-figure salaries in the oil patch.

Heading further east, the country is humming along with very respectable unemployment rates for the prairies, Ontario and even Quebec (7.9 per cent).

Then you hit the Maritimes and life starts to suck. The worst is in Newfoundland and Labrador, at around 15 per cent unemployment. It may not be a full-blown crisis, but when you realize that the statistics are probably not going to change much for the long term, it doesn't look good.

But then, not so many people actually live that far east, so the national unemployment average still comes in at a very respectable 6 per cent.

But looking at some countries' unemployment rates (from the CIA's own figures), our situation starts to look really good.

In Afghanistan, it's 40 per cent. In Serbia, nearly one third are unemployed and in Kosovo, nearly half have no productive work to do. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is suffering through a catastrophic 80 per cent unemployment rate brought on by its own political masters.

There are enough economic basketcases out there that the global unemployment and underemployment average is hovering at around 30 per cent.

Of course, even in developing countries, some people do succeed. And in our free and mobile society, people with drive and talent will become productive citizens wherever they go. But as in real estate, the chance to have a "normal" life seems dictated largely by three considerations: location, location, and location.

tags: Canada unemployment, BC unemployment, unemployment rate, get a job, land of opportunity