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China remains confident Europe can solve its crippling debt crisis even though it continues to balk at requests for it to use its financial firepower.

President Hu Jintao told reporters Monday his country is closely following developments in Europe as the 17 countries that use the euro grapple with a debt crisis that has seen three countries bailed out and threatening to engulf Italy, the eurozone’s third largest economy .

“We are convinced that Europe has the wisdom and the competence to conquer its momentary difficulties,” he said during an official visit to Austria.

Europe is closely watching comments by Hu and other Chinese officials in the hope the country will use some of its huge cash reserves to help prevent the region’s debt crisis from spilling over into increasingly shaky economies like Italy and Spain.

Beijing so far has promised to help only by continuing business as usual, trading with Europe and stockpiling some of China’s multibillion-dollar trade surpluses in the safest European government bonds.

Eurozone leaders last week presented the broad outlines of a new anti-crisis strategy. At the center of this strategy is an expansion of the eurozone’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. Since the currency union’s finances are already stretched, it wants non-European investors to help fund a special investment vehicle that would act alongside the EFSF.

Although many details of that plan have still to be agreed, this investment vehicle could help the EFSF buy up bonds from struggling countries like Italy and Spain or support bank recapitalizations in poorer eurozone countries payday loans.

Getting more resources behind Europe’s main anti-crisis weapon is particularly important if market pressures continue to rise on Italy. On Friday, Rome had to pay record interest rates at a bond auction, indicating that it may soon have to request help from the eurozone to keep its funding costs in check.

No signs of more direct Chinese plans to help have emerged during Hu’s visit, which started Sunday and ends in two days, when he flies to the G-20 summit in Cannes, France for talks expected to focus on the eurozone’s crisis.

Instead, Hu suggested Monday that China remained content to let European Union leaders work on a solution.

Hu, who did not take questions, said he believes that the path to a global upswing lies on greater cooperation among the world’s leading economies.

Hu has been courted by major EU countries as the financial crisis unfolds.

He and French President Nicolas Sarkozy talked Thursday by phone and pledged to cooperate to revive global growth, while the chief executive of the EU’s bailout fund visited Beijing on Friday to talk to potential investors.

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Mexican authorities on Thursday raised to six the death toll from Hurricane Jova, which hit along the Pacific coast as a Category 2 storm, and warned the storm’s remnants could affect opening ceremonies of the Pan American Games.

The body of a man who apparently had been swept away by a river current was found covered with mud in the town of Cihuatlan in Jalisco state, said civil protection spokesman Juan Pablo Vigueras. The games are scheduled to open in Jalisco on Friday.

The five other victims drowned, were killed by mudslides or died in a collapsed house.

Rain from the remnants of Jova may change the open-air inauguration of the Pan American Games in the western city of Guadalajara, said Bernardo de la Garza, Mexico’s top sports official.

Heavy rain falling on Mexico’s west coast also may affect training sessions for the games’ triathlon, sailing and beach volleyball, he said. All three competitions are to be held in the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta just north of where Jova hit land early Wednesday.

Farther south, a low-pressure system continued to dump rain on southern Mexico and Central America, where it was blamed for the deaths of 15 people in Guatemala. Rains will likely continue during the next couple days as the system hovers over southeastern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, said the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

Guatemalan Vice President Rafael Espada said four people are missing.

He urged Guatemalans on Thursday to use the country’s highways only for emergencies, saying several were damaged by the storm or are blocked by mudslides.

The storm damaged at least 2,000 homes, said Alejandro Maldonado, director of Guatemala’s disaster prevention agency.

Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Irwin was expected to weaken as it swirled over the Pacific off Mexico’s coast and was forecast to become a remnant low within 24 hours, the hurricane center said.

Irwin’s maximum sustained winds Thursday afternoon were near 40 mph (65 kph). The storm was centered about 145 miles (235 kilometers) west of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was moving east at 6 mph (9 kph).

The depression’s was predicted to begin curving away from Mexico by Friday morning and head back out over the Pacific.

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Unemployment has been stuck near 9 percent since the recession ended more than two years ago. The jobs report for September on Friday sent the clearest signal to date that the crisis will last through next year’s elections.

The pain isn’t confined to the 14 million officially unemployed Americans. Among those hurt by today’s 9.1 percent jobless rate are people forced to work only part-time and those who’ve given up looking for work in frustration.

Count many people with jobs, too. Their pay, home values and employment prospects have been diminished by the lack of good-paying, full-time work. Include, too, communities where services have been slashed, small businesses struggling with weak sales and young adults who can’t find jobs to repay student loans.

The ailing job market is both a symptom and a cause of troubles elsewhere in the economy _ from a depressed housing market to cash-short governments to sluggish consumer spending.

Here’s a look at the wide-ranging consequences of chronically weak job growth.

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WAGES:

A crippled labor market shifts bargaining power to employers. Workers have little leverage to seek raises. When adjusted for inflation, pay was nearly 2 percent less in August than it was a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.

“People are much more compliant and willing to take extra work assignments because they’re afraid,” says Carl Van Horn of Rutgers University’s Center for Workforce Development.

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GOVERNMENT BUDGETS:

High unemployment squeezes government finances in at least two ways. Lost jobs mean governments collect less tax revenue. And they have to spend more on unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social programs.

The federal government’s tax collections this year are expected to fall to the lowest level since 1950 as a percentage of the economy. More than 40 million Americans _ a record 1 in 8 _ are receiving food stamps.

Enrollment in Social Security’s disability program has shot up by more than 1 million people, or nearly 16 percent, since the recession struck in 2007. In part, that’s because those who can’t find work are seeking government benefits instead.

If the economy were strong enough to reduce unemployment to a healthy 5.2 percent, next year’s federal budget deficit would be one-third lower than forecast, the Congressional Budget Office said this week.

Worst off are local governments. They’ve been cutting services and jobs for the past two years. Over the past 12 months, localities have slashed 210,000 jobs.

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YOUNG PEOPLE:

Breaking into the job market is increasingly hard for high school and college graduates. Businesses aren’t creating many jobs. And workers who have jobs are holding on to them. That leaves young people with few openings to apply for.

To find work, new college graduates have to settle for lower pay and jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. That’s painful for those who took on big debts to pay for their college education.

“Young people who enter the labor market under these conditions pay a wage penalty for quite a long time,” says Harry Holzer, former chief economist at the Labor Department bad credit payday loans.

College grads hired in 2009 and 2010 earned 10 percent less than those who found jobs in 2006 and 2007, before the Great Recession, the Rutgers researchers found.

And economist Lisa Kahn of Yale University found that young people who graduate in a poor economy will still be saddled with lower wages 15 years later.

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THE UNDEREMPLOYED AND THE HOPELESS:

In September, nearly 9.3 million Americans had to settle for part-time work even though they wanted full-time jobs. That was up 440,000 from August. An additional 2.5 million want to work but have given up looking. Add those part-timers to the workforce dropouts and the unemployed and nearly 26 million, or 16.5 percent, of working-age Americans want full-time work and can’t find it.

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BABY BOOMERS:

Aging boomers are less likely to lose their jobs than younger workers. But when they do, they have a tougher time finding new ones. Would-be employers tend to choose younger, cheaper applicants. Some fear that older workers will bolt for a better-paying job once they can.

In a survey of the unemployed, the Rutgers researchers found that 80 percent of those older than 50 have been out of work for more than a year. And half have been unemployed at least a year.

Many have drained their retirement savings and lack health insurance. Nearly half plan to apply for Social Security benefits earlier than they had intended to.

Peter Cohen, 59, a veteran Hollywood video producer, has been out of full-time work since October 2008. Cohen, who specialized in using Apple equipment as a producer since the 1980s, was shocked to be turned down recently for a retail job at an Apple store.

“The savings account has been depleted, and we are now living out of our stock market account, which might get us through another year,” Cohen says. “After that, it will be time to hit the 401(k), which might get us to Social Security.”

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SMALL BUSINESSES:

Unemployment, job insecurity and dwindling wages are preventing consumers from spending freely. Many big companies can turn to fast-growing markets overseas to compensate for slumping U.S. sales. But most small businesses can’t.

Small companies surveyed by the National Federation of Independent Business have cited weak sales, rather than perennial gripes like high taxes and burdensome regulations, as their No. 1 problem.

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POLITICS:

Among those sweating the jobs crisis is President Barack Obama. He’s up for re-election in just over a year. September’s 9.1 unemployment rate and tepid job growth suggest he’ll be presiding over an economy so weak it could feel like a recession. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment this high.

“Until we see a consistent trend suggesting progress (on the economy), it’s going to remain the dominant issue and a pretty big negative for Obama,” says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center.

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TORONTO — The financial sector helped push the Toronto stock market sharply higher Wednesday amid reports that European Union officials are examining plans help banks better withstand fallout from the eurozone’s government debt crisis.

In an interview with the Financial Times, European Commissioner Olli Rehn hinted at a possible bank recapitalisation plan but didn’t provide any details.

The S&P/TSX composite index surged 198.49 points to 11,376.4 while the TSX Venture Exchange rose 34.66 points to 1,354.98.

Investors have been concerned over the last couple of months about the slowing pace of economic revival and a possible debt default by Greece, which would worsen economic conditions and cause havoc on the European financial sector.

Recapitalising eurozone banks could limit the damage to the financial system should the Greek government default.

An increased appetite for risk sent the Canadian dollar up 0.39 of a cent to 95.19 cents US.

U.S. markets were also supported by positive economic data, with the Dow Jones industrial average ahead 22.86 points to 10,831.57. The Nasdaq composite index rose 10.1 points to 2,414.92 while the S&P 500 index was up 3.69 points to 1,127.64.

The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index showed the services sector continuing to expand during September. It came in at 53, which met expectations and was just slightly lower than the August reading.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund is pushing for radical changes in the way the eurozone’s debt crisis should be handled.

Antonio Borges, the head of the IMF’s Europe program, said the eurozone’s bailout fund should get more firepower and new tools. To help, he said the IMF could intervene in bond markets to keep the crisis from engulfing large economies like Italy and Spain

Franco-Belgian bank Dexia was in the spotlight once again Wednesday amid mounting expectations that it will be broken up somehow, possibly as soon as Thursday.

Dexia has been at the forefront of investor concerns over its exposure to potentially bad debt from Europe’s most indebted countries. Investors are concerned about what bonds Europe’s banks are holding, and banks themselves have become reluctant to lend to one another.

An announcement that ratings agency Moody’s Investor Services had downgraded Italy’s debt by three notches to A2 was taken in stride on financial markets. Moody’s cited high debt, a weak global economy and political uncertainties.

Markets failed to find much lift from positive employment data two days before the release of the U.S. government’s non-farm payrolls report for September. Economists hope the economy created around 55,000 jobs.

On Wednesday, payrolls firm Automatic Data Processing said that the U.S. private sector added 91,000 jobs last month.

The financials sector was up 1.43 per cent in the wake of the Financial Times report. Royal Bank was up 39 cents to $46.34 and TD Bank rose $1.03 to $72.17.

The energy sector gained 2.21 per cent as hopes for improving demand prospects sent the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange ahead $2.11 to US$77.78 after losing almost $2 on Tuesday to its lowest close since September 2010. Suncor Energy was up $1.12 to C$26.55 and Cenovus Energy gained 94 cents to $31.34.

Other commodities were mixed with December gold in New York ahead $3.60 to US$1,619.60 an ounce, leaving the gold sector up 1.42 per cent. Barrick Gold Corp. rose 50 cents to C$47.64 and Goldcorp Inc. climbed $1.22 to $47.16.

The base metals sector was 2.4 per cent higher while December copper prices were down seven cents at US$3.04. Teck Resources climbed $1.20 to C$32.19 and HudBay Minerals was ahead 23 cents to $10.28.

The TSX has closed lower for the past three days, leaving Canada’s biggest stock market in bear market territory, down 22 per cent from its 2011 highs from early March.

Commodity prices have taken a huge hit since early August when investors started to get concerned that global growth was faltering and there was a growing possibility that economies could slide back into recession.

That in turn has resulted in large losses in energy and mining companies on the resource-heavy TSX as oil prices have slid about 20 per cent in the last two months while copper has plunged 31 per cent.

Copper is widely viewed as a barometer for the health of the overall global economy since it is used in electronics, homes and infrastructure.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei index closed 0.9 per cent lower and Korea’s Kospi index ended 2.3 per cent down.

Stock markets in Hong Kong and mainland China were closed for a holiday.

European bourses advanced with London’s FTSE 100 index up 2.81 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAX gained 4.48 per cent and the Paris CAC 40 advanced 3.27 per cent.

On the corporate front, Talisman Energy Inc. lowered its full-year production forecast to about 425,000 barrels of oil per day, down from a previous estimate of 430,000 to 440,000 barrels, as it resumes production at its Rev facility in Norway. Its shares fell 15 cents to $12.

Precision Drilling Corporation has signed deals to build eight new rigs for the Canadian and U.S. oil and gas industry. Financial terms of the contracts were not revealed by the big Calgary-based drilling services company. Its shares lost 12 cents to $8.95.

Labopharm Inc. and Gruppo Angelini have terminated their existing joint venture agreement established in May 2010 and restructured their drug-commercialization partnership and its shares dipped half a cent to 28 cents.

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s fiscal fourth-quarter net income climbed 11 per cent to US$478 million as the wholesale club operator made more money on membership fees and saw sales rise. But the performance missed analysts’ expectations. The company also said it will raise annual membership fees starting next month.

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Germany’s Federal Statistics Office says the country saw exports rise by 14.7 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same time period the previous year.

The office said Thursday that from January to June 2011 exports came in at euro525.6 billion ($721.60 billion), up from euro458.3 billion in the first six months of 2010. When adjusted for prices, the rise was 10.1 percent.

Second quarter exports rose an unadjusted 10.8 percent to euro264.7 billion compared to euro238.8 billion in the same quarter last year.

The Wiesbaden-based agency said the exports saw particularly strong growth to non-European Union countries, including Turkey, Russia and China.

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Apple is fending off a fresh barrage of criticism from Chinese environmental activists over alleged pollution by the manufacturers who make its iconic products.

In a report issued Wednesday, a group of nongovernmental organizations accused the company of violating its own corporate responsibility standards by using suppliers that allegedly violate the law and endanger public health by discharging heavy metals and other toxins payday loan lenders.

Apple responded to the allegations by saying it took such concerns seriously but had found discrepancies in the report.

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Argentina will raise its minimum wage by 25 percent to keep pace with inflation.

The minimum wage in Argentina is already among the highest in Latin America. The latest increase raises it to $2,300 pesos, or about $550 a month.

Private analysts say that Argentina also has one of the highest inflation rates in Latin America, along with Venezuela. They say official government numbers vastly underestimate consumer price increases.

Unions had wanted a 41 percent increase in the minimum wage, while business groups started the bargaining at 18 percent. President Cristina Fernandez praised both union and business leaders late Friday night for reaching an agreement.

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I spoke with just three people Friday: a friend who works at the University of Michigan, my west-end Toronto MP, and a local Tim Hortons franchisee. Apropos of nothing, they each asked me:

Leaders of Alabama’s most populous county voted unanimously Friday to reject a settlement with Wall Street creditors to pay off more than $3.1 billion in debt and bought more time to avoid what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy ever filed.

The five members of the Jefferson County Commission also unanimously approved a resolution to give the commission president and finance chair until Sept. 16 to personally negotiate a deal.

The county has been trying to avoid filing bankruptcy over more than $3.1 billion in sewer system debt for three years. Its problems stem from a mix of outdated sewer pipes, the economy, court rulings and public corruption.

State officials and a court-appointed receiver have been closely involved in the negotiations. Republican Gov. Robert Bentley’s chief of staff, David Perry, attended Friday’s meeting.

Perry said a Chapter 9 bankruptcy proceeding was still a possibility but “a general framework for a deal is in place.”

Perry said Bentley and legislative leaders would get personally involved to make sure any needed legialtion passes if county officials can work out a deal.

“The county and creditors do not have a definitive deal in place yet but they have a conceptual framework that keeps sewer rate increases at a minimum and resolves the problem once and for all for the county,” the governor said in a statement.

Commissioner Jimmie Stephens, who oversee the county’s finances, said members thought they could get a better deal in bankruptcy court than was offered by lenders.

“That’s the reason we didn’t accept the creditors’ offer,” he said.

The main problem is some $3.14 billion in sewer debt. The total value of the bankruptcy would exceed $4.1 billion once the county’s debts for schools and other projects are included, officials said.

Commissioners sharply criticized the settlement proposal by Wall Street, which would have resulted in rate increases of almost 25 percent within 18 months and additional, single-digit rate hikes for as long as 40 years. Creditors would have forgiven more than $1 billion in debt and the county would have refinanced $2.3 billion, which would be used to pay off old debts, create a $233 million reserve and cover more than $23 million in issuance costs.

The settlement also would have resulted in dismissal of litigation including the county’s lawsuit against JPMorgan over deals that helped lead to the debt. Commissioners said all those cases should go forward and criminal investigations into the debacle should continue.

“There are still bad people out there,” Commissioner Sandra Little Brown said.

State lawmakers would have to approve legislation to put key parts of any agreement in place and commissioners said the governor had asked for additional time to work with lawmakers building support. But Stephens said he was skeptical, particularly because the Legislature this year failed to approve bills needed to fix other problems in the county’s operating budget cash advance now.

Jefferson County has about 658,000 residents and is home to both Alabama’s largest city, Birmingham, and its medical and financial centers. A bankruptcy filing by Jefferson County would far exceed the current record for a municipal bankruptcy, set 17 years ago by Orange County, Calif.

Jefferson County resident David Roebuck, 25, said the financial debacle was disappointing, and he fears it will tarnish the area’s reputation for years.

“It’s embarrassing,” Roebuck said. “How are you going to attract new business or industry if the county isn’t being run very well?”

The county has been trying to avoid filing bankruptcy since 2008. It offered JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other creditors a deal that would have wiped out more than $1 billion of the sewer and led to sewer rate increases.

A court-appointed official last month recommended a 25 percent rate hike for sewer customers, whose average residential bill would increase by more than $9 a month to $46.88, calling it a necessary step toward financial viability, but it’s unclear what might happen to rates, county services and its workforce should leaders opt for bankruptcy.

Jefferson County financial woes result from a mix of outdated sewer pipes, the economy, court rulings and public corruption.

A federal court forced Jefferson County to begin a huge upgrade of its outdated and overwhelmed sewer system to meet federal clean-water standards in the ’90s, and officials used bonds to finance the improvements. Outside advisers suggested a series of complex deals with variable-rate interest that were later shown to be laced with bribes and influence-peddling.

Loan payments rose quickly because of increasing interest rates as global credit markets struggled, and the county could no longer afford its payments. Meanwhile, a string of elected officials, public employees and business people were convicted of rigging the transactions that helped put the county in so much trouble.

The sewer debt isn’t Jefferson County’s only problem, though. It already has laid off about 550 of its 2,300 workers and reduced government services because courts struck down an occupational tax and business license that provided more than $74 million annually for its operating budget. The county has closed satellite offices and reduced hours, and long benches now line a hall in the main courthouse where residents often have to wait hours for the simplest of transactions, like getting a new car tag.

Jefferson County’s bankruptcy filing would be nearly twice as large as the record one filed by Orange County, Calif., in 1994 over debts totaling $1.7 billion. Jefferson County officials have been consulting with one of the lawyers who worked on the Orange County bankruptcy.

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