Stubbornly high unemployment rates got you down? Not sold on the economic recovery? Look no further than America's polite neighbor to the north, where jobs numbers are surging and home prices have been rising steadily for nearly a year.
Last month, Canada, a nation with roughly one tenth of our population, created about 10,000 more new jobs than America.
Yes, Canada's economic recovery is outpacing our own. In terms of sheer job creation, June saw Canada create jobs at a pace that was five times the rate predicted by economists, Bloomberg News reports. Canada added 93,200 jobs in June, while U.S. private employers added just 83,000.
Thanks to strong hiring in the service sector, Canada's unemployment rate fell to 7.9 from 8.1 percent, while America's unemployment rate came in at 9.5 percent in June, falling only because of a large exodus of Americans looking for work. All told, the U.S. lost 125,000 jobs in June because of a wave of Census layoffs.
Real estate prices tell a similar story. After 10 straight monthly gains, Canadian home prices rose 0.3 percent in May, reports Bloomberg News. In the States, things are somewhat bleaker. Many areas showed small home price gains in May, , but in many other areas prices remain close to their April 2009 lows, according to the latest data from the widely-watched S&P/Case-Shiller index.
Canadian real estate broker Royal LePage predicts Canada's home prices could rise an average of 6.8 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, the IMF, though remaining relatively upbeat on the U.S. housing and job markets, warned that the foreclosure crisis could lead to a double-dip in home prices.