The recession hit home last month, as a massive 129,000 workers joined the unemployed, more than half of those in Ontario. The province's unemplyment rate rose to 8%, up from 7.2% in December.

Across the country, it was the worst monthly employment drop in at least three decades, topping figures seen in either of the two previous recessions in the 1980s and 1990s. Almost all the jobs were full-time and were mostly in a battered manufacturing sector that has been most affected by the severe downturn in the United States.

Since October, the country has lost 213,000 jobs, wiping out last year's gains. Economists had been forecasting a much tamer number. "The expectation was for a loss of 40,000... this is three times the expectation," BNN's Michael Kane said Friday morning.

The only industry with notable gains was health care and social assistance, which saw a boost of 31,000 jobs.

Last month, Toronto had an unemployment rate of 7.8% compared to a number in the previous month hovering around 7.3%. Ottawa was Canada's only major city to show improvements with a 10th of a percent down from 4.6%. Windsor, Ontario has gone to over 10%, and that's before the rotating layoffs at GM, Chrysler were announced this morning.

This has been Canada's worst increase in unemployment since Statistics Canada started record-keeping in 1976.