Canada's employment rate hitting a seven-year high of eight per cent and the economy shedding another 61,300 full-time jobs in March, was not unexpected, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday in Edmonton.

"This is the kind of level of unemployment we were expecting in the budget. That's why we've come forward with the kinds of programs and … the amount of dollars we have to deal with this … during this and the next fiscal year," said Harper, responding to new job data released by Statistics Canada Thursday.

He was speaking at a press conference at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, where he reannounced $2,000 bonuses for people who complete apprentice training, outlined in the January budget.

"Obviously, we're never very happy about unemployment. All of these increases are causing real hardship to Canadian families. At the same time, we do have good social safety nets and we do have good systems of retraining that we are enhancing."

Harper reminded reporters that Canada is relatively better off than the United States where he said five million jobs have been lost since the start of this recession last fall.

"That's what's pulling us down and we have to see that get turned around," he said.

He also highlighted his government's move to increase the employment insurance benefit period by five weeks and hire more workers to process the backlog of EI claims.

Statistics Canada employment chart

Statistics Canada said a total of 79,500 full-time jobs disappeared in March, while employment in part-time work grew by 18,200.

Economists had a consensus projection that the country would lose a total of about 55,000 jobs last month, although some of the forecasts expected a loss of more than 90,000 positions.

Since hitting its most recent peak in October 2008, employment across the country has fallen each month, with net losses totalling 357,000. Statistics Canada said that, in percentage terms, this is the largest decline over a five-month period since the 1982 recession.

Since October, full-time employment has declined by 387,000, while part-time numbers have edged up by 30,000.

The largest declines in employment were seen in British Columbia, which lost 23,000 jobs; Alberta, where 15,000 positions were shed; and Ontario, which lost another 11,000 jobs. The three provinces have the fastest rate of employment decreases since October.

Jobs losses were widespread throughout the economy, with losses in manufacturing, finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, construction and natural resources.

Employment in the manufacturing sector dropped 34,000 in March, bringing the sector's total losses since October to 134,000, or a drop of 6.8 per cent. Manufacturing has lost the most workers of the major industry groups, Statistics Canada said.

The finance, insurance, real estate and leasing sector lost 20,000 jobs in March. The construction sector had 18,000 fewer workers last month — the third notable drop in four months — bringing total job losses since October to 99,000.

'Deep in the heart of the recession'

Employment in natural resources declined 11,000 in March, led by losses in Alberta, mostly in mining, oil and gas extraction.

"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," said BMO Nesbitt Burns economist Douglas Porter.

"For a change, there really were no major surprises in the details, and the results are fully consistent with the setbacks seen south of the border. The good news — such as it is — is that the job losses are not accelerating, and may even be starting to lighten," Porter said in a commentary.

Another economist suggested there is still plenty of pain ahead on the employment front.

"With employment having contracted 272,000 in the first three months of 2009, we regard this only to be around the half-way mark for 2009 job losses, which we estimate will total over 520,000," said TD Bank economist Grant Bishop.

"We still expect losses, albeit at a slower pace, through the next three quarters, anticipating the unemployment rate will rise to 10 per cent by year’s end. There is still much pain ahead and, along with the hard-hit export sector, job losses have now infected domestic sectors."