Canada: Unemployment Rate Hits Record High

Ottawa, Feb 4. – The unemployment rate in Canada increased in January to 7.6 percent, the worst in nine months, taking into account that more people looked for a job, the national statistics office reported on Friday.

At least 1,300 new jobs were created during the first month of the year, lower than the 22,000 expected by analysts, said the source.

Experts consider that the Canadian labor market is increasingly dropping after having being one of the most resistant to the global crisis started in 2008 in the hemisphere.

In the past few days, government sources expressed concern about several aspects of domestic economy.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty cited difficulties prevailing in the mortgage market, saying that some institutions are making the same mistakes that unleashed the crisis in the sector in the United States three years ago.

He said the Canadian financial bodies are hastily providing mortgages and therefore, many citizens will not be able to pay them off when the interest rates, now on a record low, increase.

The ease with which US banks provided mortgages for years constituted a major cause for the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008.

At that time, the strength of the Canadian real estate sector was a main factor that prevented the economy from suffering the most visible consequences of recession.(Prensa Latina)