Toronto, Nov 8 (IANS) Despite Canada's main exports - commodities and oil - slipping lower and North America's third largest stock market here closing the last day of the week on a sluggish note, the economy has created thousands of new jobs in October.
The TSX composite index closed at 9,542.88 points. Compared to Thursday when the index fell 3.36 percent or 331.79 points, the closing day of the week saw a decline of just 12 points.
The day's major losers were the metals sector that fell by 2.3 percent and consumer commodities which slipped 2.1 percent.
The Canadian dollar, which suffered as the oil prices hit record low levels mid-week, gained 0.26 cents to end the week at 84.32 cents US.
On a positive note, while the US reported a 14-year high joblessness rate of 6.5 percent in October, the Canadian economy created thousands of new jobs in the month.
Even as its biggest trading partner down south reported 240,000 lost jobs for October, Statistics Canada reported creation of 9,500 new jobs for the month.
However, the federal agency said the overall Canadian unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent in September.
Since the manufacturing sector, including the auto industry, is in slump, all the new jobs have been reported in public administration.
Amid this positive news, General Motors Corp. announced it would cut 500 Canadian jobs as part of its overall staff reduction target of 3,600 in North America.
GM said the lay-offs will come into force early next year as it grapples to stay afloat after posting a $2.5 billion third quarter loss.
The US auto giant has an assembly plant at Oshawa near here.
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