Business

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

People line up at the Resource Canada offices in Montreal on April 9, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Canada's economy showed signs it may be ready to bust out of its half-year funk by churning out a surprisingly strong 50,700 new jobs in February, most of them full-time, in the private sector and in Ontario.

The big gain was enough to keep the unemployment rate at the four year low of 7.0 per cent despite the fact over 60,000 Canadians joining the labour force in the month, another good signal for the economy.

Regionally, Ontario was the biggest generator of new jobs, adding 35,300, followed by British Columbia with an increase of 19,800. Quebec had the biggest drop in employment, shedding 13,100 jobs.

Economists had expected a second weak month in February given that most indicators have been pointing to modest growth and January saw an outright loss of nearly 22,000 jobs. The forecast had been for about 8,000 new jobs.

But instead markets are likely to be buoyed by the result, particularly as the economy also got some welcome news on Thursday with a report showing exports had rebounded in January.