There was little good news in the November employment reports released to day in Canada and the United States.

The Canadian unemployment rate edged up to 7.3% in November, Statistics Canada said.

That’s a small increase from the 7.1% jobless rate reported in October.

After several months of solid job creation, things quieted down in November when an increase in part-time work was offset by a slight decline in full-time employment.

At the same time, more people entered the market looking for work, which helped push up the jobless rate.

The latest figures will help the Bank of Canada decide whether to change interest rates at its next opportunity on December 7.

The central bank had been pushing up rates, mostly recently increasing its key policy rate by a quarter-point to 2.5% in October.

Employment in the key manufacturing sector fell by 18,000 last month, which has now reported 52,000 fewer jobs since July.

The sector may be feeling the negative effects of a stronger Canadian dollar.

More jobs were reported in the finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sectors as well as in education.

South of the border, the U.S. economy produced disappointing job growth in November as 112,000 positions were added last month, missing economists’ forecasts.

Economists had been expecting between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs to be added last month.

The November unemployment rate eased to 5.4% from October’s 5.5% as more job seekers found work.

U.S. retailers cut their payrolls by 16,200, coinciding with what is being described as a soft beginning to the holiday shopping season.

The U.S. Labour Department also revised its estimate of October’s big job creation figure. The U.S government revised the figure downward from 337,000 to 303,000 new positions.