The US job market suffered its heaviest blow in more than two decades in October, shedding a staggering 415,000 jobs as the full impact of the September 11 attacks struck an economy already in the early stages of recession.
The Labor Department said the national unemployment rate soared half a percentage point to 5.4% last month from 4.9% in September - the highest in nearly five years, matching a 5.4% rate in December 1996.
October's job losses were the sharpest for any month since May 1980, and came on top of a revised fall of 213,000 jobs in September.
Last month's performance was far worse than the 289,000 jobs that Wall Street analysts had forecast would be lost and the unemployment rate was well above their 5.2% estimate.
Earlier this week, the government reported the nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of total economic activity, shrank at a 0.4% rate during the third quarter.
* Following the news, US President George W Bush said today that spiking jobless figures were 'not good news for America' and urged lawmakers to pass an economic stimulus package to help the nation recover from the September 11 terror strikes.
'I urge the Senate to work quickly to pass the bill ... to show the nation that we can, in fact, deal with the aftermath of this tragedy,' he said after a meeting with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
Bush has been pushing the Senate to approve a House-passed stimulus package that focuses on tax cuts and corporate investment incentives. Opposition Democrats have assailed the measure as doing too little for workers.
The president said he favoured extending and expanding unemployment benefits for workers displaced by last month's onslaught and said the House initiative would 'cause the job base to firm up and expand.'
