The Ottawa-area was hit hard last month as businesses and agencies cut jobs to deal with the effects of a stumbling economy.
In February, the Ottawa region lost 7,200 jobs, mostly in retail and high tech. Unemployment also rose in Cornwall and Kingston.
Across the country, 82,000 jobs were lost, pushing the unemployment rate up to 7.7 per cent, Statistics Canada reported on Friday.
According to the report, all of the employment losses in February were full-time positions (110,900), while part-time employment edged up slightly (28,300).
Ontario was the hardest hit, shedding 35,300 jobs last month, mostly in construction and finance, insurance, real estate and leasing.
The latest figures push the province's unemployment rate to 8.7 per cent, one per cent higher than the national average and the highest Ontario has seen in 12 years. The jobless rate in Ottawa-Gatineau, however, is much lower at 4.8 per cent.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the new unemployment figures are frightening and accuses the Liberal government of sitting on its hands as more jobs disappear.
In January, Ontario lost a staggering 71,000 jobs -- the largest drop in employment in over three decades.
Since October, over half of the country's job losses were in Ontario, even though the province only has 39 per cent of the country's total working-age population, Statistics Canada noted.
The hardest hit segment of the labour force across the country was young male workers. In the past four months, employment among men aged 15 to 24 decreased by 104,000.
Ottawa remains somewhat shielded thanks to various levels of government, which have added 8,000 jobs in each of the last two years.
With files from The Canadian Press
