The US unemployment rate surged in August to its highest level in nearly four years, the US government said today.
The jobless rise came as companies cut 113,000 workers from their payrolls and is a very bleak sign for the US economy.
The jobless rate climbed to 4.9 per cent from 4.5 per cent in July, the US Labor Department said.
August's big drop in the number of workers on non-farm payrolls followed a revised payrolls gain of 13,000 in July that was originally reported as a 42,000 jobs drop.
The report was far weaker than private economists had expected and is likely to bolster expectations of further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
US economists had expected the unemployment rate to edge up to only 4.6 per cent and payrolls to fall by 33,000 in August.
Job losses were especially steep in the manufacturing sector, which has shed more than a million positions since the middle of last year.