Canada’s unemployment rate rose to 7.7% in February, when 82,600 jobs were lost. It was the fourth straight month of declines.

The February losses pushed the unemployment rate up 0.5 percentage points, from 7.2% in January, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Economists had expected the jobless rate to rise to 7.4%; job losses were forecast at about 40,000.

All the February employment losses were in full-time work, with 110,900 jobs disappearing, while part-time employment edged up slightly.

Since the peak last October, 295,000 jobs in the country have been lost as the economy fell into recession. In January, there were 129,000 job losses.

In February, the largest decline in employment occurred in Ontario, which lost 35,300 jobs, followed by Alberta, where 23,700 jobs vanished, and Quebec with 18,400 jobs lost.

The construction sector lost 43,200 jobs last month, accounting for over half the decline in overall employment.

“The real hit to jobs picture came out of services sector which employed 71,000 less people in February,” commented Stewart Hall, economist, HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc.

According to StatsCan, the professional, scientific and technical services sector shed 31,100 jobs. The trade sector lost 17,700 jobs, while employment in educational services fell by 14,700.

“Interestingly, financial services continues to hold in with only 2,500 positions lost,” Hall said.

The manufacturing sector actually added 24,700 jobs last month, but employment in that sector is down by more than 104,000 from February 2008.

Agriculture was the only other sector to add jobs last month, as employment rose by 16,700.

IE