Canada lost 129,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate surged more than half a point to 7.2 percent.
It marks the worst monthly employment drop in at least three decades. Canada's previous two recessions in the 1980s and 1990s never had as bad a month.
Statistics Canada reported Friday that Canada has lost 213,000 jobs since October. That wipes out a year's gains.
The credit crisis and the global sell-off of commodities have started to hit Canada hard. The central bank is predicting economic output will contract 4.8 percent in the first quarter.
