New figures show that US employers cut jobs for a second straight month during February, slashing 63,000 jobs. This was the biggest monthly job decline in nearly five years.
The Labor Department said last month's cut in jobs followed an upwardly revised loss of 22,000 jobs in January instead of 17,000 reported a month ago. In addition, it said that only 41,000 jobs were created in December, half the 82,000 originally reported.
The back-to-back January and February job losses were the first consecutive monthly declines since May and June of 2003.
The February jobs report was more bleak than expected. Economists had forecast that 25,000 jobs would be added last month.
They had also forecast that the unemployment rate would edge up to 5%, but it eased from 4.9% in January to 4.8%. This that was because fewer people were in the labour force.
Job losses were widespread. 52,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing industries, the largest decline since July 2003. Construction businesses eliminated another 39,000 jobs on top of 25,000 that were cut in January, a reflection of the housing industry's deepening woes.
