Economy. This employment situation, at its lowest level since August, exceeds experts’ expectations and causes the unemployment rate to swell by 0.6 percentage point to 9.4%, according to Statistics Canada.

Part-time jobs are hardest hit, particularly in the retail sectors of Quebec and Ontario.

Statistics Canada also found that remote work has grown significantly since the start of the year. Of the Canadians who kept working by working at least half of their regular hours, 700,000 were enrolled in domestic service, increasing the number of home workers from 5.1 million in April to 5.4 million in January.

The unemployment rate returned to growth in December after losing 63,000 jobs to 8.6%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from November. Experts had forecast a loss of 47,000 jobs in January and an unemployment rate of 8.9% according to financial data firm Refinitiv, citing the Canadian press.

Quebec has escaped a 2 percentage point increase in its unemployment rate, which is now 8.8%. Unlike the rest of Canada, the province is at its highest level since August. Ontario’s unemployment rate, up 0.6 percentage points, puts the province at 10.2%.