Economists and market-watchers say the job creation report for March bolsters a  growing list of better-than-expected Canadian data in the first quarter of the year.

Stats Can reports an upsurge of 40-thousand-600 net new jobs last month.

That drove down the unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent from 7.3 per cent in February.

Frances Donald is a senior economist at Manulife Asset Management.

She says not only is the headline number very strong, but the underlying details — which show most of the new jobs were full-time and in the private sector — are strong as well.

The job gains follow other positive economic numbers since the start of this year –  including areas such as retail and trade.