Source: The Canadian Press Posted: 01/09/09 7:03AM Filed Under: Business News
OTTAWA - The deepening recession took another bite out of Canada's labour market in December as the country shed 34,400 jobs - 70,700 full-time - and the unemployment rate jumped three-tenths of a point to 6.6 per cent.
It was the second large monthly job loss in two months, following November's outsized 71,000 contraction. More worrying for Canadians was the large decrease in full-time employment, and in the private sector, where 59,400 jobs were lost.
LONDON - November 2008 marked one of the worst months for British manufacturers since the mid 1980s as export markets dried up, firms went bust and domestic demand was reined in, official figures showed Friday.
The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output, which accounts for around 15 per cent of Britain's gross domestic product, fell a massive 2.9 per cent in November from the month before.
COLLINGWOOD, Ont. - A drop in metal prices is forcing a mining supply company in Collingwood, Ont., to lay off more workers.
MacLean Engineering and Marketing is laying off 70 workers on top of the 35 employees who were served layoff notices last November. The company blames a decline in demand for underground mining equipment and a drop in world metal prices.
FAIRFAX, Va. - President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and long-lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the U.S. economy, making an urgent pitch Thursday for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since the election.
"In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse" if Washington doesn't go far enough to address the spreading crisis, the Democrat said as fresh economic reports showed an outlook growing increasingly grim.
TORONTO - The drastic drop in global stock markets and interest rates has been mirrored by Canada's corporate pension plans, according to an international consulting firm.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide (NYSE:WW, NASDAQ:WW) said the ratio of a typical pension plans assets compared with its solvency liabilities plunged 27 per cent in 2008. Dismal economic developments in the fourth quarter helped drag the ratio down from 96 per cent last January to just 69 per cent at year's end.
DETROIT - Newspaper reports say General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC would be in default of their multi-billion dollar federal bailouts if their workers go on strike and could be forced into bankruptcy.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News report Friday that the default is part of the deal GM signed with the Bush administration last month to get $13.4 billion in loans. The Detroit News reports Chrysler's loan deal has a similar provision.
WHITBY, Ont - On the eve of the release of what is expected to be troubling job numbers, pleas for help from struggling Canadians dominated the finance minister's first public pre-budget consultation on Thursday night.
Jim Flaherty was in his Whitby, Ont., riding to listen suggestions from citizens for the Jan. 27 budget. About 300 people were in attendance and many came forward with pleas for ordinary Canadians during the economic crisis.
HONG KONG - Most Asian stock markets fell Friday amid more corporate gloom and worries that a key U.S. jobs report could show recession in the world's largest economy is deepening.
After fluctuating in the morning, markets trended down later in the session as investors awaited closely watched non-farm payrolls data, due out later in the U.S., that's expected to reveal massive job losses as the global downturn leads companies to lay off workers and curb hiring.
PARIS - France's Renault SA said Friday that vehicle sales fell 28.5 per cent in December as the global economic crisis led to a "brutal" collapse of the market.
For the full year, Renault posted a sales drop of 4.2 per cent in a world market that fell an overall 4.8 per cent. Renault held its share of the world market for cars and light commercial vehicles steady at 3.6 per cent in 2008.
SINGAPORE - Oil prices rose to above US$42 a barrel Friday in Asia as traders speculated that a second front is opening in Israel's Gaza offensive, but analysts said gains would likely be limited by continuing weakness in demand for crude.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 31 cents to $42.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late afternoon in Singapore. The contract overnight fell 93 cents to settle at $41.70.
SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's central bank cut its key interest rate Friday for the fifth time in just three months to spur the country's slowing economy.
The Bank of Korea said it lowered the seven-day repurchase rate to 2.5 per cent from an already record low 3 per cent at a regular policy meeting Friday.
TORONTO - The Bank of Canada is considering making more moves to rejuvenate the economy and is working on an "early warning system" to identify future risks to Canada's financial system, according to central bank deputy governor Pierre Duguay.
"We will continue to monitor carefully economic and financial developments in judging to what extent further monetary stimulus will be required to achieve the two per cent inflation target over the medium term," Duguay said in a speech in Toronto on Thursday.
OTTAWA - As more layoffs batter the North American economy, Canadian and U.S. policy makers will use the latest employment numbers Friday to get an important reading on the severity of the recession, which began more than a year ago in the U.S. housing sector and has since spread throughout the world.
Among the latest symptoms: 1,400 jobs were cut worldwide Thursday by Vancouver-based mining and metals company Teck Cominco (TSX:TCK.B), including more than 500 in British Columbia and Alberta.
TORONTO - Canadian bank bosses say they're keeping up their lending but there's no doubt the country is undergoing a tightening of credit as other loan sources evaporate.
"To a large degree, notwithstanding what is sometimes reported in the press, it is business as usual," Royal Bank of Canada (TSX:RY) CEO Gordon Nixon said Thursday, commenting Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's perception that credit availability is a key political issue.
VANCOUVER, B.C. - Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B) says it will slash 1,400 jobs worldwide, more than a third from Western Canada, as the mining and metals company cuts costs amid a global slump in commodity prices.
The Vancouver-based company says the cuts will reducing its workforce by about 13 per cent, and will also help eliminate redundancies after its US$14-billion acquisition of Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year.
WASHINGTON - The government seized more than $270 million in counterfeit and pirated goods over the past year, a 38-per-cent increase over 2007.
Electronics, computer network hardware, pharmaceuticals and perfume were among the fakes that posed health or security risks, say the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement divisions of Homeland Security.
TORONTO - The private equity arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System plans to invest $50 million in a startup Canadian regional wireless carrier to be launched this year by BMV Holdings.
Formed in July after participating in last year's auction of federal wireless spectrum licences, BMV is aiming to begin offering its new service in southern parts of Ontario and Quebec by this summer.
NEW YORK - Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed cheques worth US$173 million in Bernard Madoff's office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month in what is alleged to be largest financial fraud in history.
The detail was provided in a court filing Thursday as prosecutors argued that Madoff should have his bail revoked and be sent to jail. They said the cheques were further evidence that he wants to keep his assets away from burned investors in a more than $50-billion fraud.
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