Canada’s labour force took a massive hit in March, Statistics Canada reported in its latest Labour Force Survey.

Employment fell by more than one million jobs in March—a drop of 5.3 percent compared to February. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate jumped by 2.2 percentage points to 7.8 percent—the largest one-month increase since Statistics Canada began comparing monthly labour force trends in 1976.

Unemployment increased by more than 413,000—a gain of more than 36 percent—in March. Most workers were displaced due to temporary layoffs that were the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the number of Canadians who had worked recently and wanted to work, but did not meet the official definition of unemployed, increased by 193,000.

Of those who were employed in March, the number who did not work any hours during the reference week (March 15 to 21) increased by 1.3 million, while the number who worked less than half of their usual hours increased by 800,000. Statistics Canada attributes those increases to the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase brings the total number of Canadians affected by either job loss or reduced hours to 3.1 million.

The sudden drop in economic activity and employment in March is more than eight times greater than the impact caused by the 1998 ice storm, which resulted in an estimated 166,000 people across the country losing all or most of their hours worked.

Employment fell in all provinces. Ontario (-403,000 or -5.3 percent), Quebec (-264,000 or -6.0 percent), British Columbia (-132,000 or -5.2 percent) and Alberta (-117,000 or -5.0 percent) reported the largest declines.

Not surprisingly, the greatest share of jobs lost was recorded in those industries that involve public-facing activity, or which offer little to no capacity for working from home. Accommodation and food services, for example, lost 294,000 jobs—nearly a quarter of its workforce.

Statistics Canada says this decrease is by far the largest employment variation in the sector since it recorded such metrics. During the 2008–2009 recession, for example, employment in this industry declined by 5.4 percent over a 12-month period ending in September 2009.

Employment in the construction sector nationally dropped about 2,200 jobs in March, or 0.1 percent. Only Newfoundland and Labrador (300 new jobs created) and Alberta (5,300 jobs created) recorded gains in their construction workforces.

In Ontario, construction lost 4,900 jobs or about 0.9 percent of its workforce. Quebec lost about 2,300 jobs, or about 0.8 percent of its workforce.

Given that construction in both regions remained an essential service through most of March before being scaled back significantly in April, those figures will likely drop in April’s Labour Force Survey.