North American stock markets look set to open higher Friday as Canada’s unemployment rate dropped to a 32-year low, and the U.S. economy continued to add jobs.

Statistics Canada said Canada’s jobless rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 6.3% in March. That’s the lowest level in 32 years.

StatsCan said the economy churned out 50,500 new jobs, handily exceeded economists’ expectations of 21,000 new positions.

The Canadian dollar opened at US86.66¢, down 0.04 of a cent.

South of the border, the U.S. unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.7% in March as a better-than-expected 211,000 jobs were added to payrolls.

The jobless rate was an improvement from the 4.8% seen in February.

In earnings news, Research In Motion lost 5.1% in pre-market trading on Inet after its first-quarter earnings outlook missed estimates. The BlackBerry wireless device maker, which posted a modest profit in the fiscal fourth quarter, said it planned to spend more on sales, marketing and product development.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 74.04 points, or 0.42%, to finish at 17,563.37 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange – the Nikkei;s highest close since July 10, 2000.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 60.65 points, or 0.4%, to 16471.78.

On Thursday, Toronto stocks reached a new record close for the third time this week, on higher resource prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 42.90, or 0.35%, to 12,342.02. The index has gained 1.9% on the week, so far.

Six of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were up, with the materials index gained 1.52%.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index gained 47.20, or 1.58%, to 3,036.92, breaking through the 3,000-point plateau and establishing a new all-time high.

In New York, markets ended mixed ahead of the March employment report.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 23.05 points at 11,216.50. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.42 points to 2,361.17. The S&P 500 Index fell 2.52 points to 1,309.04.