Terrible US employment numbers

The February US non farm payroll numbers were nasty. The US economy shed over 650,000 jobs. Since January last year, almost 4.4 million jobs have been lost.

The chart above might give the impression that February was slightly better than Janunary. Not so; there 28 days in February; 31 in January. The next chart illustrates the average daily job losses per month.

In February, the daily job loss rate was 23,000 compared to 21,000 in January.

Unemployment in the US has surged to 8.1 percent, hitting its highest rate since 1983.