A consensus of economists had forecast employment would be down about 50,000 in April.

Statistics Canada says all of the jobs gains were in the self-employed category, which is normally a sign of labour market weakness.

And of the gains came in Quebec and British Columbia, with most other provinces either losing workers or registering little change.

In April, the hourly wage rate also showed surprising strength, gaining 4.3 per cent over the same month last year.

Canada is shedding jobs at a rate not seen since the deep recession of the early 1980s, as March saw more than 61,000 workers join the ballooning ranks of the unemployed.

The loss brought Canada's official unemployment rate to eight per cent, the worst in seven years.

Statistics Canada noted that since the peak in October, employment has fallen each month for a total of 357,000, representing 2.1 per cent of the work force. That is the most since 1982.