Again, the economic news is so bright, it is dazzling -- according to the business press.
In October, the US unemployment rate dipped to 4.1 percent, the lowest it has been since January, 1970.
In Canada, unemployment fell to 7.2 percent, its lowest level since 1990.
But look behind the statistics.
The US surge in job creation is masking a steady, and serious decline in manufacturing employment.
In the first half of this year, US factories were shedding workers at the rate of 36,000 per month. The rate has slowed since, but is still averaging 12,000 per month.
That means that since January, the US has seen a quarter of a million manufacturing jobs disappear.
Where are the new jobs then?
They are not in retail. Retail businesses cut 30,000 jobs in October, the sector's third consecutive monthly decline. Bars and restaurants were down 28,000. Food stores lost 13,000 jobs and general merchandise stores fell by 8,000.
Job growth was almost entirely in the service sector. An incredible 215,000 jobs were added in the business services sector in October, to go along with increases in building supply, garden supply services, and car dealerships.
This is truly a "doughnut recovery" -- lots of dough on the outside, but hollow in the middle.
Ultimately, an economy cannot be sustained by endlessly expanding services, and a declining manufacturing base. Without the goods produced in the factories, there is nothing to service.
The United States is living off its position as the last "safe haven" in a troubled world.
Currencies around the world have collapsed in value. Suddenly, Americans can purchase goods made in Asia for a fraction of their cost only a few years ago.
So there has been a steady shift towards buying goods made abroad, while manufacturing shrinks at home.
Billions of dollars have flooded in from collapsing economies in Asia.
That flood of money has sent shares to record levels, allowing firms to go massively into debt using share value as collateral.
Both of these factors contain within them huge problems.
A recovery in Asia and a consequent increase in the value of their currencies will make imports more expensive.
But the manufacturing core of the American economy has shed enormous capacity through layoffs and downsizing. It will be hard-pressed to pick up the slack.
A recovery in Asia will see money start to trickle out of the United States, putting downward pressure on stocks.
But that will expose the debt which has used the value of these stocks as collateral.
And that debt level is extraordinary.
Over the past four decades, private net saving has never been negative. That is, over those decades, people and corporations earned more than they owed.
Suddenly, this is no longer the case. This year, Americans debt exceeds their income by 5.5 percent.
In the late 1980s, Britain, Sweden and Japan experienced the same massive increase in shares, followed by a massive increase in debt.
When the bubble burst, all went into deep recessions.
This is critically important for Canada.
Canada's recovery is taking a different shape to that in the United States.
Ours is one of the currencies that was battered by the economic turmoil of 1997 and 1998. But a cheap dollar -- kept even lower by a conscious low interest rate strategy -- has led to an export boom to the American market.
As a result, manufacturing employment in Southern Ontario is growing quickly.
In October, manufacturing employment increased 55,000. The gain for the last 12 months has been 205,000.
This is impressive, until you realize that it is completely dependent on the US bubble economy. A downturn there will lead to a sudden reversal in this growth of "quality" jobs.
The union movement needs to take advantage of this conjuncture, while factories' order books are bulging, to press hard for the gains we have been denied through the 1990s.
But we have to also get our locals into fighting shape to prepare for the hard times that will hit when the American, and Canadian, economies turn down towards recession.