Canada now joins U.S. in having the worst monthly job losses since the mid-1970s

"The recession hit home where Canadians live last month as a massive 129,000 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed and the country's jobless rate surged to 7.2 per cent.

More than half the jobs lost were in Ontario where manufacturers, particularly carmakers, have been hit hard. The province's unemployment rate rose to 8 per cent, up from 7.2 per cent in December.

In Toronto, the ranks of the unemployed grew to 7.8 per cent, rising a one-half percentage point from the previous month.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. employers slashed payrolls by 598,000 in January, the most since the end of 1974, catapulting the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. The losses were far worse than the 525,000 economists expected. So was the rise in the unemployment rate, now at the highest since September 1992.

Across the country, it was the worst monthly employment drop in at least three decades, topping figures seen in either of the two previous recessions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Almost all the jobs were full-time and were mostly in a battered manufacturing sector that has been most affected by the severe downturn in the United States."

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/583372