It's not surprising, but it's biggest jump in the unemployment rate in a month, since record keeping started in Canada in 1976.
Statistics Canada says the economy lost 1,011,000 jobs in March, mostly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That pushed the unemployment rate from 5.6% up to 7.8%.
To put the numbers into perspective, the total number of pepole in Canada who were affected by either job loss or reduced hours, was 3.1 million.
That is the equivalent of the population of Manitoba, twice.
The sectors of work that were mostly affected, were public-facing activities, or those with limited abilities to work from home. That includes accommodation and food services, information, culture and recreation, educational services and wholesale and retail trade.
Economists warn the numbers are likely to be even worse when the agency starts collecting April job figures, with millions more Canadians now receiving emergency federal aid.
Statistics Canada retooled some of its usual measures of counting employed, unemployed and ``not in the labour force'' to better gauge the effects of COVID-19 on the job market, which has been swift and harsh.