Canada’s unemployment rate rose by 0.2 percentage points to 6% in March, pushed up by more people entering the labour market, Statistics Canada said today.

Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate popped to 5.1% in March from 4.8% in the prior month.

Canada’s economy added 14,600 new jobs in March. Economists had been projecting a gain of 15,000 positions.

The economy shed roughly 19,600 full-time jobs but added about 34,200 part-time jobs, Statistics Canada said.

The transportation, warehousing and natural resource industries all posted employment gains, with losses in the information, culture and recreation sectors.

March’s employment gain was a sharp slowdown from the additions of more than 43,000 jobs in February and 46,000 jobs in January.

Alberta and British Columbia were the only provinces with job gains of note in March. B.C.’s employment rate reached a high of 64% as the province added 15,000 jobs. Alberta’s participation rate hit 74.7%, the highest of any province, as it added about 10,000 jobs last month.

Ontario added 23,000 part-time jobs, but lost 25,000 full-time positions. The province’s unemployment rate edged up 0.3 percentage points to 6.4% in March, as more people joined the labour force.

U.S. unemployment rate rises to 5.1%

The U.S. labour market was weaker than expected in March, the government said today. The economy lost 80,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, according to a survey of business establishments, about the same as the 76,000 lost in February and more than the 60,000 expected to be lost by economists.

As a result, the U.S. unemployment rate climbed 5.1% from 4.8% in the prior month. This is the highest unemployment rate since September 2005.