国际英语新闻：Canadian government acts to boost sluggish economy

And much of the new employment in the private sector is part- time work. "In fact, although employment has regained its pre- recession level, hours worked have not," the governor said.

The unemployment rate remains at 8.1 percent, about two points higher than in 2008, when the recession began cutting into employment. That two percent translates into about 370,000 jobs.

The New Democratic Party, which has strong ties to the trade union movement, lashed out Thursday at the Conservative government.

It claimed the Conservatives'sale tax increases, imposed in Ontario and British Columbia in partnership with the provincial governments, were responsible for the stubbornly high jobless rate, which the NDP says translates into 1.5 million unemployed.

Against this backdrop, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced Thursday that the government will hike payroll unemployment insurance taxes by five cents per 100 Canadian dollars (about 103 U.S. dollars) of insurable earnings on Jan. 1 instead of the 15- cent hike that had been announced earlier this year.

Flaherty had been under pressure from business groups and trade unions to drop the increase or to drastically reduce them. The reduction in the tax increase will save workers and businessmen, who split the payroll tax, 1.2 billion Canadian dollars.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business had strongly lobbied Ottawa to drop the tax increase, arguing it could cost 170, 000 jobs.

"This will support job creation by leaving more money in the hands of businesses and their employees ... in a time of fragile economic growth," Flaherty said.

"Together, these new limits strike an optimal balance between supporting economic recovery and ensuring that the EI (employment insurance) program breaks even over time."

Canada's unemployment system is supposed to be self-sustaining program that accumulates a surplus in times of economic expansion and pays workers a percentage of their earnings when they lose their jobs.

A large surplus in the fund was removed in the 1990s and early 2000s by the then-governing Liberals to balance the country's books and reduce the national debt.

Flaherty said the Canadian government will not rush too quickly to bring the fund back up to a solvent level.

"The cumulative deficit built up over the last two years would require high, steady increases in EI premiums over a number of years to repay the deficit in the program's finances," he said. " That is something that is simply not appropriate at a time when we are trying to support economic growth and recovery."

Flaherty also announced he would start national consultations on the way the unemployment payroll tax rate is set. He said the government "will not abandon our commitment to a program that breaks even over time."  (1 U.S. dollar = 1.02939965 Canadian dollars)