CORRECTED-Canada February job losses bigger than expected

(Corrects total number of job losses to 82,600 from
110,900, which is the figure for full-time job losses)

March 13 (Reuters) - The Canadian economy shed more jobs
than expected in February, losing a net 82,600 posts in the
month as the unemployment rate jumped to 7.7 percent, the
highest since 2003, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

Feb 2009 Jan 2009

Jobs gain/loss -82,600 -129,000

full-time -110,900 -113,900

part-time +28,300 -15,100

Unemployment rate 7.7 pct 7.2 pct

Participation 67.4 pct 67.4 pct

Labor force 18.315 mln 18.292 mln

Feb 2009 Feb 2008 Pct change

Avg hourly wage C$22.47 C$21.62 +3.9
NOTE: Analysts surveyed by Reuters had expected the economy to
shed 52,500 jobs in February and the unemployment rate to rise
to 7.4 percent. The employment figures are seasonally adjusted.
Hourly wage figures are for permanent employees.
LINK * Statistics Canada report
here
(Reporting by Louise Egan)