Thank you very much, Ms. Dzerowicz, for your question and your hard work. It's nice to have here today a member of Parliament whose riding borders my own.
I think that is a really important question. I'm going to start by saying something that perhaps politicians and indeed even economists don't say often enough, which is that we are still today—we have been since COVID hit—travelling in uncharted waters. This is an unprecedented crisis, and I do think it's important for everyone to acknowledge the high degree of uncertainty that we continue to face.
What I think that requires of us as policy-makers, as people who have the privilege and the responsibility of steering the Canadian ship through these uncharted waters, is that we have to have a lot of humility. We have to acknowledge that there is great uncertainty about economic forecasts and great uncertainty about what's going to happen with the virus. Acknowledging that actually is a strength.
What we need to do, having acknowledged that, is to really have tremendous agility, have a lot of our tools in our tool box and be able to respond quickly as the circumstances change. The emergence of the omicron variant is an example, so I want to start with that.
Having said that, I think it is also really important for us as Canadians to set the record straight and to really take some quiet Canadian pride in the reality that we have done a really good job in handling this, the worst crisis since the Second World War and the deepest economic blow to the country since the Great Depression. The Canadian economy is recovering strongly. That is due to the hard work of all Canadians, and it is due to the work that we've done in the House of Commons.
Let me give you some numbers to back that up. Our GDP in the third quarter grew by a robust 5.4%. That beat market expectations. It was stronger than in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and Australia. Our jobs recovery has been very, very strong, with 154,000 jobs in November and 106% of jobs compared to pre-COVID. I really want to emphasize that, for our government, focusing on the jobs recovery has been at the core of everything we've done, because we understand that for every Canadian, or the vast majority of Canadians, the way to make life affordable, the way to have a good life, is to have a job. It starts there. I am really pleased to share with this committee and with all Canadians how strong our jobs recovery has been.
Canadian households have weathered the storm remarkably well. Savings in the third quarter were 11% and that compares to an average of 3.4% between 2010 and 2019. Deposits are at $105 billion—4.3% of GDP—and that is above pre-pandemic levels. Canadian households have been wise and prudent, and they have handled this crisis very, very well. Our exports surged to $56.1 billion in October, the highest level ever.
Yes, there are challenges ahead. Yes, there is a great deal of uncertainty and unpredictability. We need to be prudent and keep the insurance policy of lockdown support and keep this targeted support for the hardest-hit sectors, but I also think that Canadians should take some quiet Canadian pride in how well we have handled this historic challenge.