Job cuts accelerate, recession fears rise
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers cut 159,000 jobs last month, a ninth straight monthly reduction and the deepest in 5-1/2 years, the government said in a report on Friday that suggested the economy may be in recession.
The Labor Department report showed 760,000 jobs lost so far in 2008. The unemployment rate in September held at a five-year high of 6.1 percent as 121,000 people quit the workforce.
The bleak hiring outlook and a separate report showing a sluggish service sector that barely grew last month added to a string of recent negative news, including weak personal income and spending, declines in manufacturing and declining factory orders and shipments.
"The problems of Wall Street have now hit Main Street with full force," the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said ahead of the U.S. House of Representatives' vote to approve a $700 billion rescue package for banks and other financial firms.
The proposal, passed earlier this week by the Senate, will enable the Treasury to buy bad assets, including mortgage-related securities from financial firms in hope that will persuade them to resume normal lending and ease a credit market freeze.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson praised lawmakers for passing what he called "key and critical" measures to help protect or at least slow losses of U.S. jobs and savings.
The Treasury will use auctions and other measures to take the illiquid assets from banks, holding them until it can resell them and possibly profit. Paulson said the Treasury will spell out how it intends to act in coming days.
Investors clearly remained worried about the economy's prospects, notwithstanding the fact that President George W. Bush swiftly signed the bailout bill into law.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI shed early gains to end down 157.47 points, or 1.5 percent, at 10,325.38, marking its worst week for losses in seven years. The high tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 29.33 points, or 1.48 percent, to close at 1,947.39.
Prices of U.S. Treasury debt securities reversed course to turn positive as buyers sought safer haven in the face of falling stock prices. The dollar's value dropped against the euro following the House vote.
House members put the best face on their decision to change their own course -- approving the rescue package on Friday after rejecting an earlier version on Monday -- and appeared to be swayed by the weak jobs and other economic signs.
A BAD HAND DEALT
"We were dealt a bad hand. We made the most of it. I think the American people will benefit from it," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the vote, which cleared the way for the legislation to be signed into law by President George W. Bush.
The economy will remain under strain for a protracted period, analysts said, with all the risks to the downside unless confidence can be restored to markets and to consumers.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the job report was disappointing but not surprising. "Everyone should understand that it will take some time for our economy to recover from the housing correction, elevated energy prices and the credit crisis." Continued...
