There’s good news on the jobs front on both sides of the border this morning. Statistics Canada is reporting that employment rose by an estimated 54,000 in November, the third consecutive monthly increase.

Since August, employment has grown by 166,000, much stronger than the 52,000 increase over the first eight months of the year. This brings gains over the first 11 months of 2003 to 1.4%. The recent strength in employment has been mostly in full-time jobs. The unemployment rate declined 0.1 percentage points in November to 7.5%.

In the U.S. the Labor Department is reporting that the unemployment rate dropped to an eight-month low in November, down a tenth of a percentage point to 5.9%. This is the lowest level since March, when it was at 5.8%. Non-farm business payrolls grew by a net 57,000 last month, raising the total of job gains since July to 328,000.

Ironically, this follows yesterday’s report of a jump in U.S. weekly jobless claims. And economists are quick to point out that over the last three years, employers have cut more than three million private-sector jobs. To replace those jobs and sustain economic recovery, economists are looking for monthly payroll gains of 200,000 to 300,000.

This could explain why Wall Street futures were down ahead of the reported drop in unemployment, and are still down somewhat.

In Europe at midday, London’s FTSE 100 index is off 0.5%, declining 20.1 points to 4,358.1. Frankfurt’s DAX is down 0.5% while the Paris CAC40 has slipped 0.8%.

In Asia, the week of trading ended with Tokyo’s Nikkei average falling 56.53 points to 10,373.46. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index declined 27.92 points to 12,314.73.

Yesterday, gains in the energy sector pushed Toronto’s S&P/TSX composite index up 33.46 points to 7,993.34.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 57.40 to 9,930.82 — its highest level in 18 months. The Nasdaq composite index rose 8.55 to 1,968.8. The S&P 500 index was ahead 4.99 at 1,069.72.