Canada has biggest job decline in January in three decades

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

OTTAWA, Feb. 6 (Chinese media) -- Canada's economy lost

129,000 jobs in January, the biggest monthly decline in more than three decades,

Statistics Canada reported Friday.

The losses pushed the country's unemployment rate up

0.6 percentage points from December to 7.2 percent.

Moreover, all of the job losses were full-time

positions, with manufacturing registering the biggest decline totaling 101,000

positions, the largest monthly drop in the industry on record.

Job losses were also recorded in furniture, computer

and electronic, non-metallic mineral product, electrical equipment, appliance

and components, clothing manufacturing, transportation and warehousing,

business, building and other support services.

The only industry with notable gains was health care

and social assistance, which saw a boost of 31,000 jobs.

Canada's industrial hub Ontario province lost 71,000

jobs, the largest in more than three decades.

Ian Lee, director of the MBA program at Carleton

University's Sprott School of Business, said he thinks the earliest the

recession will hit the bottom will be 2010 but it is possible it could come in

2011.