The economy failed to add new jobs in August, the first time there has been no increase in net jobs in the United States in 11 months.
The flat performance was down sharply from a revised 85,000 gain of jobs in July, the Labor Department said Friday, and was far below a consensus forecast by economists of 60,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate stayed constant at 9.1 percent in August.
The nonfarm payrolls numbers were unchanged after a prolonged increase in economic anxiety in August that began with the brinksmanship in Washington’s debt-ceiling debate, followed by the country’s loss of its triple-A credit rating, stock market whiplash and renewed concerns about Europe’s sovereign debt.
Wall Street stocks promptly lost more than 2 percent of their value at the opening of trading. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 210 points Friday morning to 11,280.07.
