OTTAWA -
Ontario's manufacturing heartland felt the full brunt of the recession in May as the province shed almost 60,000 workers, the vast majority full-time employees in the battered manufacturing industry.
The outsized losses in Canada's most populous province helped push the country's unemployment rate to an 11-year high of 8.4 per cent, from April's eight per cent mark.
However, the unemployment rate in Saskatchewan actually dropped in May to 4.9 per cent from five per cent in April. Saskatchewan is now tied with Manitoba, after its rate went up from 4.6 per cent, for the lowest rate nationally.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the only provinces that have not suffered overall job losses since last October.
Alberta's rate went up to 6.6 per cent for third lowest nationally.
Nationally, 41,800 workers joined the ranks of the unemployed last month, pushing the total to 363,000 Canadians who have lost their jobs since the recession began last October.
The number would be worse but for a 17,000 pick up in part-time work. Full-time employment was down 58,700 nationally.
That has been a common thread of the unemployment picture in Canada since October.
Full-time employment has fallen by 406,000 overall, while part-time employment has increased by 44,000, an indication many employers are reducing their workers' hours rather than laying them off.
The recession has also cut into workers' incomes. Average hourly wages were 3.4 per cent higher in May over the same month last year, constituting the lowest increase in two years.
