US stocks fall 2% on grim jobs report

Sep 02, 2011 |

New York

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US stocks opened sharply lower on Friday after official data showed that the struggling US economy created no new jobs in August, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 9.1 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 228.90 points (2.0 percent) to 11,264.67 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 dropped 25.27 points (2.1 percent) to 1,179.15, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 53.29 points (2.1 percent) to 2,492.75.

Employment in the US private sector, which has been the main engine for job growth as revenue-strapped governments shed workers, ‘changed little’ in most major industries, the US Labor Department said.

The bleak news about the US labor market underscored weakness in the world's largest economy and put increasing pressure on US policy-makers to take action to increase employment.

"There is no excusing this miserable employment report that shows only very weak job creation in the private sector," economists at RDQ Economics said in a research note.

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