The recent run on stocks built on positive economic signs may have hit a few speed bumps Friday after poor jobs numbers were released on both sides of the border.

In Canada employment continues to decline. Statistics Canada said employment edged down almost 19,000 in August, the fourth decline in the last five months. In 2003, so far, employment has increased by only 0.3%. That’s a sharp contrast to the 2.6% growth during the first eight months of 2002. In August, the unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage points to 8.0%. The last time the rate was at 8.0% was in December 2001.

The Ontario-U.S. power outage was unlikely to have affected employment, says Statistics Canada. Instead, the blackout caused a significant number of people to merely miss work.

In the U.S., the Labor Department reported that employers cut jobs for a seventh consecutive month in August. Non-farm business payrolls declined by 93,000 last month. The cut was the steepest in five months, bringing the total job to 431,000. Economists had forecast a gain of 12,000 jobs.

Wall Street futures are reacting negatively to the jobs numbers. For investors wondering about the value of shares in light of the jobless recovery, some analysts are pointing to bonds.

This kind of economic disparity led the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates a quarter-point on Wednesday. Investors will hear more from Bank governor David Dodge later today. He is scheduled to make a speech in Calgary.

In Europe, at midday, London’s FTSE 100 has slipped 0.23%. Frankfurt’s DAX is up 0.06% and Paris’s CAC 40 is up 0.21%.

Profit-taking in banking shares gave, Tokyo’s Nikkei a boost of 3.82 points, or 0.04%, to 10,650.77. The Hong Kong market closed slightly higher at a fresh 14-month high. The Hang Seng Index gained 31.99 points, or 0.29%, to 11,170.61.

On Thursday, North American markets closed slightly higher. The Toronto stock market’s S&P/TSX composite index gained 14.49 points to 7,594.85. The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 0.77 point to 1,324.57.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 19.44 points to 9,587.9. The Nasdaq composite index ended up 16.07 at 1,868.97, its seven winning session in a row. The S&P 500 index finished up1.7 at 1,027.97.