The Canadian economy lost 61,300 full-time jobs in March, pushing the unemployment rate up to 8 per cent -- the highest in seven years.

According to Statistics Canada, jobs are disappearing at a rate not seen since the economy was locked in a deep recession in the early 1980s and unemployment rose to 13 per cent.

Since October 2008, 357,000 jobs have disappeared in Canada, which represents 2.1 per cent of the total work force.

Statistics Canada said the March losses were widespread across a number of industries but most notably in:

  • manufacturing (-34,000)
  • finance, insurance, real estate and leasing(-19,800)
  • construction (-18,000)
  • natural resources (-10,500)

Analysts had been predicting about 55,000 jobs would be lost in March.

"While not quite as horrid as the two prior months, this report leaves little doubt that we remain deep in the heart of the recession, despite some mildly encouraging results on other fronts in recent weeks," Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, said in a note Thursday.

Provincially, British Columbia (-23,000), Alberta (-15,000) and Ontario (-11,000) saw the largest job losses.

Since October, these three provinces have had the fastest rate of employment decreases.

Meanwhile, employment fell by 26,000 among men aged 25 to 54 in March.

"Since the start of the downturn in October, the unemployment rate for this group has increased by 2.2 per cent points, while employment has declined by 197,000, the largest five-month loss in 33 years," the StatsCan report states.

"In contrast, there have been fewer employment losses (-39,000) among women aged 25 to 54 years since October, and their unemployment rate has increased by 1.0 percentage point, to 5.7 per cent."

In February, Canadian employers slashed 82,600 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up to 7.7 per cent.

In March, the jobs were all shed in the private sector and the economy actually lost 79,500 jobs. However, the dismal numbers were mitigated by an upswing in part-time jobs.

That could indicate that many out-of-work Canadians are simply settling for whatever they can get, according to some economists.

Harper responds

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the government anticipated such news when it tabled its budget earlier in the year.

"Obviously this is not good news," Harper said from Edmonton.

On the other hand, this is the level of unemployment we were expecting in the budget. That's why we've come forward with the kind of programs and dollars we have to deal with this problem," he added, referring to the budget's $40-billion over two years stimulus.

Harper also advised young Canadians just entering the workforce to retool their skills so they will be ready for when the economy turns around.

"When the job market is a little bit softer, but you know that it's going to come back, now is not the time to run out into the workforce and make a few quick bucks," said Harper.

"Now is the time to actually train for the long-term."

The numbers are a stark contrast to last September's statistics, when the Canadian market added a record 107,000 jobs.

Scotia Capital economist Derek Holt said the sudden reversal could be attributed to employers holding off downsizing out of hope that Canada would dodge the global downturn.

However, seven months later, economic output in Canada has contracted by eight per cent -- its worst quarterly decline since the Second World War.

Now, Canada seems to be echoing the U.S. in terms of job losses, where about 600,000 people have been put out of work every month recently.

South of the border, U.S. employers slashed 663,000 jobs in March, sending the jobless rate to 8.5 per cent -- the highest since 1983.

The cuts mark the fourth straight month in which job losses exceeded 600,000.

"While we've spoken to the risk of a half-million hit to employment this year, we're raising our views on the risks to the three-quarter million mark," said Holt.

'Things could get worse before they get better'

TD Securities economist Eric Lascelles that the numbers are simply the latest in a string of "dismal economic figures.

"It's not a huge, huge surprise, (but) it certainly still has to constitute a disappointment," he told CTV Newsnet Thursday afternoon.

"It's really been some pretty grim stuff, through and through."

Lascelles said that since job numbers are a "lagging" economic indicator, things could get worse before they get better.

"For a true, proper recovery to occur, I think a pre-condition has to be (that) this credit crunch has to go away. In my mind that credit crunch is very much lingering," he said.

Lascelles noted that the first signs of the recovery will likely occur in the U.S.

In particular, he said a reversal in the slumping U.S. housing market would be an encouraging sign.

"I'd feel a whole lot better if U.S. home prices stopped falling," he said, adding that the decline has been about 18 per cent annually.

With files from The Canadian Press