In terms of the overall employment issue, you've raised a number of important points. Certainly, first of all, there is a very difficult adjustment going on in the manufacturing sector in Canada. I think this committee is aware of it, and we are certainly aware of it at the Bank of Canada. We are watching it closely.
Canada grew manufacturing jobs in the 1990s. We were unique in the OECD, with the exception of Spain, in doing that. We are now losing manufacturing jobs. I think 16% of manufacturing jobs have gone over the course of the last five years. That's about 360,000 jobs over that period that have disappeared in manufacturing.
As you suggested, though, in the wake of that, the economy has created about 1.5 million jobs in the service sector and about another 300,000 jobs in the other goods-producing sectors, which would include construction, importantly, which is very strong. It also includes the natural resources sector and other sectors like that. So we're seeing strength in our economy, and going back to Mr. CrĂȘte's discussion, I would say that the relative importance of domestic demand in the economy is the type of force that continues to support this type of employment--service sector, construction, and obviously the natural resources because of the terms of trade, as referenced by Mr. Jenkins.
The second point I'd make, and then I'll stop and give you back your time, is on the broader forces. One of the points I tried to make in those comments was that the nature of manufacturing is changing, and people are specializing or becoming increasingly specialized within a global supply chain. It's about finding the right point in that global supply chain. That means fewer jobs in Canada but, we would hope, higher-value-added jobs, so that the overall contribution of manufacturing to our economy remains high. That requires linking into those supply chains. It requires training. It requires a global sense from our manufacturing industries, and they're working towards that. There's no question that they're working towards it. That is difficult, but overall, the employment picture is quite healthy.
My last point is that the employment picture being quite healthy--there is a circularity here--is one of the reasons we still see some strong momentum in domestic demand.