Windsor had the highest jobless rate out of any city in Canada last month, according to the latest Statistics Canada figures.

Our city's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for March was 10.5 per cent, up from 8.3 per cent in February.

The snapshot of the labour force comes as the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the country into economic uncertainty.

Mayor Drew Dilkens expects the numbers to get even worse in the months to come.

"There's no doubt that there is widespread pain in the community as a result of some of the decisions that had to be made," he said.

"The question is how can we get past this as quickly as possible, and as safely as possible, to get things back to the new normal and get our economy working again for us."

However, jobless numbers for the city were on a decline before the pandemic arose.

Statistics Canada's January 2020 employment data set Windsor's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 8.3 per cent — the highest jobless rate out of any municipality in Canada at that time as well.

Country-wide drop

Canada's economy lost more than one million jobs in March, pushing the jobless rate up to 7.8 per cent.

Every month, the data agency surveys Canadians over the course of a single week to come up with its employment number for the month.

March's data is culled from surveys in the week that started March 15 — a tumultuous week for Canadian society, as within seven days Canadians went from planning March break vacations to sheltering in place and businesses across the country locked themselves down to try to contain the spread of COVID-19.

According to Statistics Canada, 19.2 million Canadians had paid work in February.

But March's data shows that more than one million of them no longer did the following month.