Nonfarm payroll employment in the United States continued to fall sharply in February 2009, and the national unemployment rate rose from 7.6 percet to 8.1 percent, according to a report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The monthly report indicated that the economy shed an additional 651,000 jobs in February, and that job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.
Payroll employment has declined by 2.6 million in the past 4 months.