Canada’s dollar was little changed after a government report showed employers eliminated jobs for a fifth straight month in March. The Canadian dollar traded at C$1.2343 per U.S. dollar at 7:05 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.2364 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 81.02 U.S. cents. The unemployment rate rose to 8 percent from 7.7 percent in February after employers pared a net 61,300 workers, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted employment would fall by 50,000 and the jobless rate would rise to 8 percent, according to the median of 23 estimates. After reaching a four-year low of C$1.3064 on March 9, the loonie appreciated as investors ventured out of haven currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. They purchased riskier assets such as stocks and commodity-linked currencies. Canada’s dollar will weaken to C$1.26 against its counterpart by the end of this quarter, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 37 economists.

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