The Canadian Press

North American stock markets appeared headed for a weak open Friday as data showed another month of job losses in the U.S. and investors worried about the European debt crisis.

The U.S. Labour Department said the economy shed another 20,000 jobs last month. Economists had expected a slight gain. However, on the bright side, the jobless rate moved down three-tenths of a point to 9.7%.

It said the rate dropped because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

The American jobless report came on the heels of January employment data for Canada, which showed the addition of 43,000 new jobs in January, pushing the unemployment rate down slightly by one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.3%.

However, most of these were part time and only about 1,500 full time jobs were added.

The Canadian dollar was down 0.21 cent to US93.01¢.

U.S. futures pointed to a lower open with the Dow Jones futures falling 29 points to 9,950, the Nasdaq futures were up 2.25 to 1,737 while the S&P 500 futures declined 7.7 points to 1,054.

The epicentre for the rising worries overseas is the debt crisis in Greece and the fear that it might move on to other countries, such as Portugal, Spain and Ireland, with weak public finances.

The question is whether these governments can deliver the deficit cuts they have promised in the face of strong public opposition.

Greek customs and tax officials have already begun a 48 hour strike in protest at the planned austerity measures and investors remain skeptical at best.

The riskier tone on markets led to a drop of 262 points Thursday on the TSX while the Dow Jones industrials fell 268 points.

The debt crisis has also prompted a rush to the perceived safety of the U.S. dollar, which in turn pressured commodity prices.

The March crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was off 14¢ to US$73 .

The April bullion contract on the Nymex declined $3.80 to US$1,059.20 an ounce while March copper moved down 4¢ to US$2.84 a pound.

In corporate news, Toyota’s president apologized for the automaker’s global recalls and promised to beef up quality control by setting up a special committee he would head himself. Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said the automaker was still deciding what to do to fix braking problems with the popular Prius gas-electric hybrid.

Toyoda said the company was moving quickly on the global recalls covering 4.5 million vehicles for sticking gas pedals.

Canadian aerospace manufacturer Heroux-Devtek Inc. (TSX:HRX) says its third-quarter revenue and profit fell, in part because of currency fluctuations. The Montreal-area company says its net income dropped to $3.5 million, down from $5.2 million a year earlier.

Heroux-Devtek says its third-quarter sales declined by 10.3% to $76.7 million.

A prominent Canadian oilsands developer says it will be able to access less bitumen than previously thought because of environmental restrictions. UTS Energy Corp. (TSX:UTS) says the Fort Hills and Frontier projects have had a total of nearly 150 million barrels removed from their contingent resource estimates. UTS has a 20% share of the Fort Hills project, as does Teck Resources (TSX:TCK.B). Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) owns the remaining 60% stake.

In other overseas trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 2.9% while China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng buckled 3.3%.

London’s FTSE 100 index moved 1.77% lower, Frankfurt’s DAX dropped 1.46% and the Paris CAC 40 was down 2.44%.