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Ottawa and Gatineau also depend heavily on professional services contracts, often with government. This sector, too – with nearly 10 per cent of jobs — has seen significant employment declines during the past couple of years of Conservative budget trimming.

It would be nice to say the capital region will do just fine, no matter the budget plan tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau. However, the historical strengths of the local economy are being undermined by some unsettling trends.

Consider first just how few jobs are being created. Net employment gains from 2012 to 2015 were a paltry 2,300. Clearly some of this reflects the aftermath of former finance minister Jim Flaherty’s budget in 2012, when the Conservatives got serious about trimming government spending.

Since the region’s population grew at a much faster pace – up 43,000 over the same period – this should have produced a sharp rise in the jobless rate. Instead, it moved up marginally, reaching 6.5 per cent last year.

The unemployment rate didn’t run up higher because so many simply left the labour market. Workers took buyouts and retired, returned to school or pursued other interests.

This pattern took hold with the onset of the 2008 financial crisis and is by no means unique to the capital region.

However, the exodus here has been more pronounced. Last year 69.2 per cent of our population was in the workforce compared to 72.9 per cent in 2008. The rate of decline in the participation rate (as this metric is known) was twice that experienced across the country as a whole, and was the deepest among the largest cities.