Canada's unemployment rate rises to 6.1 pct in March

OTTAWA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Canada's unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 6.1 percent in March, bringing the cumulative increase over the past 12 months to 1 percentage points, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The monthly increase in the unemployment rate was driven by an increase of 60,000 people searching for work or on temporary layoff. This brought the total number of unemployed people to 1.3 million, an increase of 247,000, or 23 percent, compared with 12 months earlier, the national statistical agency said.