Recession in review : Weathering the storm

Massive, previously unseen, fiscal stimulus expenditure in the form of both infrastructure spending and ‘bailouts’ was undertaken in the U. S., and to a lesser degree in Canada, in order to stabilize the banking and financial systems, spur demand, and carry the economy on the path of expansion. [...] First, in the oil and gas sector receipts for crude oil, as measured by the index in Figure 2.2 (above), began to fall precipitously until they finally bottomed in the last quarter of 2008, when the recession was in full swing. [...] In the transportation and warehousing sectors, the unemployment rate has fallen considerably since the trough of the recession, and is now within three percentage points of the pre- recession level at 5.4%. [...] From July 2009, the month in which the size of the labour force in Alberta peaked, to January 2010, 65,563 persons left the labour force. [...] Interestingly, in the transportation and warehousing sector, the participation rate was actually increasing for most of the period in question, finally falling in the third quarter of 2009, and returning to its pre-recession level (3.6%) in December 2009.