Manitoba’s unemployment rate nearly doubled between March and April, according to the monthly report from Statistics Canada released Friday morning.

About one in 12 Manitoba jobs disappeared during the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Statistics Canada's latest monthly survey of Canadian employment.

Data leaks of this magnitude are virtually unheard of in Canada

Statistics Canada reported Friday that the economy lost nearly two million jobs in April and the unemployment rate soared to 13.0 per cent as the full force of the pandemic hit.

Statistics Canada has launched an investigation after a media outlet reported its latest job-loss figures more than a half hour before the data was officially released.

Canada lost almost two million jobs during the month of April, a record high, as the impact of COVID-19 on the economy made itself known.