Another 131,000 jobs were lost in the United States in July for the second consecutive month.
The Labor Department said the private sector created 71,000 jobs. However, both figures were worse than expected.
Despite the overall fall in job numbers, the unemployment rate is unchanged at 9.5%.
The BBC reports the latest figures were hit by the loss of 143,000 temporary employees, who were taken on to compile the US census and finished their work in July.
June saw 225,000 census workers leave also.
The job losses sent US stocks sharply lower, with the Dow Jones index falling 120 points, more than 1%, to 10,555 in early trading.
European markets were also hit. Shares in London, Paris and Frankfurt all fell by about 1%.
Figures issued last week showed that US economic growth slowed between April and June, with GDP growing by an annualised rate of 2.4% compared with 3.7% in the previous quarter.
The housing market has also slowed in the past two months.
