US employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.
At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5..1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the U.S. economy might already be shrinking.
The new snapshot of the job market, released by the Labor Department on Friday, underscored the damage that a three-way crises - in the housing, credit and financial sectors - has inflicted companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.
"The labor market has indeed turned south," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "That was the one last bastion of hope to stay out of a recession. Now the question is how deep and how long will it last?"
The unemployment rate was the highest from September 2005, when significant job losses followed the devastating blows of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
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