TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's central bank is under pressure to revise rosy forecasts and do more to turn the economy around after hefty February job losses showed a downturn that is nearing the severity of the US recession. That prospect could weigh on the Canadian dollar, but is boosting the prices of rate-sensitive short-term debt and related derivatives.

"The commodity boom helped Canada skate onside for much of 2008," said Doug Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. "Now that that factor has been knocked aside in very short order, it means that Canada is now getting dragged down almost exactly in the line with what we're seeing in the US."

Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada officially joined the club of central banks that have openly talked about so-called quantitative easing to fight the credit crunch, which involves printing money to buy securities outright on the market, thus lowering longer-term interest rates.

The latest economic data will push the central bank further along that road, Porter said.

Statistics Canada said on Friday that net job losses totalled 82,600 in February, compared with forecasts for a decline of 52,500. The unemployment rate climbed to 7.7 percent, the highest level since September 2003.

The bleak data added to news last month that job losses in January were the steepest on record at 129,000.

The numbers cast further doubt on Bank of Canada forecasts that, after annualised declines of 4.8 percent in the first-quarter and one percent in the second, the economy will start growing again in the second half of the year and chalk up a 3.8 percent gain in 2010.