US employers shed 80,000 jobs in March, in the latest sign that the US economy may be falling into recession, announced the BBC, quoting US Labor Department figures. The decline was the third consecutive monthly drop, and worse than market expectations of a 60,000 reduction.The jobless rate rose to 5.1% in March, the highest level since September 2005, and a rise from February's 4.8%. Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke warned earlier this week that the US economy faced the risk of recession. While the Labor Department said March's job losses were spread across the economy, the biggest cuts came in the construction sector, badly hit by the free fall in houses' prices.
In fact, the US housing downturn shows no sign of slowing: US house prices fell at an annual rate of 11.4% in January, according to the latest monthly Standard & Poor's/Case-Schiller index, the biggest decline in 21 years. This latest snapshot of the slump in the US property market was confirmed by the main US estate agents body, which said that prices fell 8.2% in February.
