Skip to next paragraph  Sharp downturns in the manufacturing and construction sectors led the decline, the biggest in five years. The Labor Department also said employers cut far more jobs in January and February than originally estimated.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 5.1 percent from 4.8 percent, its highest level since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. More Americans looked for work than in February, when many simply took themselves out of the job market. But employment opportunities remained sparse.

“Three months in a row of payroll job losses and a sizable negative revision: these are clear signs that the job market is in recession,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economics Policy Institute. “I’m hard-pressed to imagine anyone who would raise doubt to that at this point.”

In the last 50 years, whenever there has been an employment downturn like the one of the last few months, a recession has followed.

Stock markets on Wall Street turned slightly lower in afternoon trading after spending much of the day in positive territory.

But economists were less optimistic. The drop in payrolls was worse than feared: many analysts had expected a decline of 50,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5 percent.

“This report is telling us that the recession started awhile back, in December,” said Nigel Gault, the chief United States economist at Global Insight, a research firm. “It is not like we are starting this month. We’re in it; we’ve been in it.”

To read this complete Fred Harteis News Article visit our news partner at: