There is 4% higher unemployment because we have better social programs. When a person falls out of a job in Canada they are not faced with the same desperate problems as they are when they fall out of a job in the United States. We are not prepared to tolerate the same things that the Americans tolerate. We are not prepared to tolerate a permanent underclass.
If we were prepared to tolerate a permanent underclass the way they do in the United States, we would have lower unemployment. If things are made more desperate, people will take jobs at low wages, even though they would prefer not to.