U.S. Loses Jobs, Recession Fears Gain Strength

Updated from 9:18 a.m. EST

January's surprise decline in the U.S. jobs market marks the first such loss in more than four years, the most striking in a batch of underwhelming economic data that may signal widespread recession worries going into 2008 are well-founded.

The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls declined in the first month of the year by 17,000. Economists on Wall Street were forecasting an increase of 65,000. The last decline was August 2003, though the Labor Department last August had initially had reported a loss of 4,000 jobs before later revising it to a gain.

"These poor jobs data are the strongest evidence so far that the economic expansion is grinding to a halt," said Peter Morici, a business professor with the University of Maryland. ...