The US unemployment rate leapt to a new 25-year high of 8.5% in March as recession-battered employers shed another 663,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The monthly snapshot of the labour market, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, showed 'widespread' losses across major sectors of the economy as the jobless rate rose from 8.1% in February.
Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with 3.3 million occurring in the past five months, the agency said.
The report was roughly in line with forecasts from private economists, who on average had expected 658,000 job losses and an unemployment rate of 8.5%. The jobless rate is the highest since November 1983.
The weak labour market offered a clouded outlook for what some analysts say is a 'bottom' for an economy ravaged by a housing meltdown that has hammered the banking sector and squeezed credit.
Revised data showed January job losses rose to 741,000, from an earlier estimate of 655,000 lost. The loss for February remained unchanged at 651,000.
