Official figures show that US employers cut job numbers for a third month in a row in March.
There was a drop of 80,000 in job numbers, the biggest monthly job decline in five years as the US economy headed into a downturn.
The Labor Department revised the first two months of the year's job losses to a total of 152,000 from a previous estimate of 85,000. The March unemployment rate jumped to 5.1% from 4.8%, the highest since September 2005.
The March job report was more bleak than expected. Economists had forecast a decline of 60,000 jobs and a rise in the unemployment rate to 5%.
Job losses were widespread during the month, with the biggest losses in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
