Canada lost 61,300 jobs in March, unemployment hits 8%

OTTAWA: Canada lost 61,300 jobs in March, pushing its unemployment rate up 0.3 percentage points to a seven-year high of 8.0 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Thursday.

Since October, net employment losses were 357,000, said the government agency, noting men aged 25 to 54 were the biggest job losers since the start of the downturn.

Employment for these "core-aged men" fell 3.1 per cent since October, marking the largest five-month loss in 33 years, the agency said.

Analysts had expected job losses of 55,000 to 60,000 in March, after 82,600 jobs were eliminated the previous month.

The March declines were concentrated in the manufacturing, constructing and resource sectors in Ontario (-11,000), Alberta (-15,000) and British Columbia (-23,000) provinces, it said.

The manufacturing losses were mostly in fabricated and primary metals, motor vehicles, and wood products.

Construction employment was down 18,000 jobs, marking "the third notable decrease in four months." The sector had the fastest employment growth in per centage terms from January to October 2008, but has since experienced the steepest decline.

Employment in the resource sector, meanwhile, declined for the second month in a row, down 11,000 in March, led by mining, oil and gas extraction cuts in Alberta province.

The average hourly wage in Canada also increased 4.3 per cent in the 12 months to March.