Canada's economy created 14,000 new jobs in February as the unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 per cent from 6.2 in January, said Statistics Canada.
The jobless rate is back down to the same levels as December.
Employment has been pushing up since August 2006 with the economy creating average monthly gains of 42,000.
Since August, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia have had job gains higher than the national growth rate of 2.4 per cent. Ontario and Quebec have fallen below the national figure.
Most of the jobs created in February were in the service sector while some losses occurred in manufacturing jobs.
About 49,000 new service jobs were recorded in February -- mostly in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing. Most of this growth came in Ontario and Quebec.
Job gains were also made in health care, social assistance, transportation and warehousing sectors.
However, Quebec lost 33,000 manufacturing jobs while similar jobs in Alberta also disappeared.
The losses may have been prompted by a scale back in production due to the CN Rail strike.
British Columbia and New Brunswick both enjoyed record low unemployment rates in February -- four per cent in B.C. and 6.9 per cent in New Brunswick.
Compared to February 2006, there was a 2.4 per cent increase or 392,000 more people working last month.
