OTTAWA, April 18 (UPI) -- Canada's employment situation is recovering from the 2008 recession, but won't be back to old levels until 2016, an Ottawa think-tank forecast Wednesday.
The Conference Board of Canada's long-term analysis said pretty much all of the jobs lost during the recession have been recovered, but "it will take another four years to bring the unemployment rate back down to about 6 percent" based on the labor pool growing.
The board said the labor force will be larger than demand based on such things as "robust" immigration and baby-boomers delaying retirement for several years to make up for investment losses in the last recession.
Forecast Director Pedro Antunes wrote Canada's gross domestic product expectations also weren't rosy for the next few years.
"Canada's economy has rebounded nicely from the 2008-09 recession, especially when compared with the performance of many other advanced economies," Antunes said. "But closing the remaining gap on potential output and full employment will be a long and protracted process, as real GDP growth will be lackluster over the next few years."
