Canada employment contracted -1011k in March, or -5.3%. Employment rate dropped 3.3% to 58.5%, lowest since April 1997. The contraction in employment was also larger than any of the three significant recessions since 1980.
Unemployment rate surged from 5.6% to 7.8%. The 2.2% rise was the largest one-month increase since comparable data became available in 1976.