America looses 159,000 jobs in a month

September, Ninth Consecutive Month Of Declining Payrolls

A struggling US economy lost 159,000 jobs in September as the weight of the housing collapse and credit crunch hit a broad swath of industries, government data showed on Friday.

The report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, showed a sharp rise in the number of cuts after 73,000 job losses in August.

"There is little doubt that the nation is in a recession, which will only deepen in coming months, as the financial crisis casts a pall on economic activity,"

said Sophia Koropeckyj at Economy.com. The unemployment rate calculated by a separate survey of households held at 6.1%, a five-year high, the Labour Department said. Payrolls have fallen by 760,000 so far this year as the world's biggest economy has been roiled by a massive collapse in housing that spread to the financial sector and led to global credit crunch."This was much worse than was expected, as the full weight of the banking crisis, the cost of imported oil and job losses to China bore down on manufacturing and the broader economy with unrelenting pressure," said Peter Morici, economist at the University of Maryland. September was the ninth consecutive month of declining payrolls, according to the report, which was weaker than the average analyst forecast of a loss of 105,000 jobs.

"The September labour market report showed the biggest loss of jobs so far in the (current economic) cycle," he added. Over the month of September, employment continued to decline in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade, while some gains were seen in health care and mining.
The manufacturing sector lost 51,000 jobs over the month, bringing the decline in factory jobs to 442,000 over the past 12 months, the report said. About 18,000 jobs were lost last month in the auto sector, which has been reeling from weak consumer spending and confidence.

ON THE SLIDE: People walk out of a job center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. US unemployment has seen a sharp rise in the last two months.