UPDATE 1-Canada agency finds no evidence report was leaked

(Adds politicians' comments)

OTTAWA, May 12 (Reuters) - Statistics Canada has found no evidence that its staff or any media outlets leaked sensitive employment data last week before the official release of the figures, an official said on Tuesday.

The federal agency conducted a review of its security procedures in the wake of market speculation that unexpectedly strong job numbers were leaked before the designated release time of 7 a.m. (1100 GMT) on Friday.

The Canadian dollar moved sharply higher starting around 6:20 a.m. that day, raising suspicions. The report showed an unexpected rise in jobs created in April when economists were anticipating a big drop.

Geoff Bowlby, director of labor statistics at Statscan, said normal provisions to ensure the secrecy of the data were "as good as always" last week.

"We have a real strict culture of secrecy, especially when it comes to the labor force survey data. We know how important they are," he told Reuters.

Statscan regularly shreds confidential documents or stores them in a secure cabinet and does not share data over the telephone, even among authorized staff. Some 35 Statscan officials have advance access to the data, most of them senior management, Bowlby said.

Copies are delivered the afternoon before release to select officials within the Finance Ministry, the Human Resources Ministry and the Privy Council office -- which serves the prime minister's officials. These officials get the data at 2 p.m. on the afternoon before the release but are not to brief their ministers until 5 p.m. that day.

Reporters covering the jobs report gather in a secured room at Statscan's Ottawa offices on the morning of the release. The doors are shut at 6 a.m. and reporters are given the report under strict embargo. All external communication is cut off until 7 a.m. and reporters are not allowed to leave the room.

Statscan stepped up measures at these so-called "lockups" this week, asking reporters to turn off their mobile phones in addition to surrendering them to officials, as usual, until after the release time. Blinds on all windows in the room were pulled down.

"There's no evidence to suggest anybody in the media actually leaked this," Bowlby said. "There's always things we can do to improve our security practices."

Opposition legislator John McCallum has questioned Finance Minister Jim Flaherty this week on how he handles the advance copy of the jobs report he receives every month.

Flaherty has often commented vaguely on employment trends on the eve of the official release by Statscan. In February he went as far as saying: "We are going to get some job numbers tomorrow that are going to be very regrettable."

McCallum said markets may have taken the periodic remarks as a signal, possibly resulting in the unusual market move last Friday.

But Flaherty denied ever commenting after seeing the actual numbers.

"I keep the figures that I'm given confidential," he said in Parliament on Tuesday.

McCallum replied: "That's not what the markets infer."

Flaherty said he has simply noted a general trend of weakness in the labor market due to the recession.

"I'm not given the figures until I've completed my public engagements on the Thursdays, and I do not refer to the figures." (Reporting by Louise Egan; editing by Frank McGurty)