According to the recent statistics Friday British Columbia's unemployment rate registered a 7.7 per cent slip in February as the economy added jobs in the public service, health care, finance and real estate.

"Industry-wise, job growth was driven entirely by public-sector hiring," David Hobden, senior economist with Central 1 Credit Union, posted in the organization's B. C. Weekly Briefing.

Meanwhile employment in construction depicted signs of a rebounding in recent months, reducing by a few thousand jobs and retail trade lost almost 12,000 positions, revealed the Statistics Canada's February Labour Force Survey.

Statistics Canada quoted that civil-service employment marked a rise by just over 12,000 in February compared with January, with nearly the same increase in health care.

Moreover, the finance and real estate sector witnessed employment to boost by about 4,000 positions.

The country had reported a net addition of 20,900 jobs in February, Statistics Canada said thereby bringing the national unemployment rate down one point to 8.2 per cent.

However, economists were anticipating a gain of about 15,000 jobs.