Europe's markets drop on US job loss news

AFP - European markets showed sharp losses on Friday, with the downturn accelerating after figures showed the US lost more than half a million jobs in November.

The London FTSE 100 index showed a loss of 2.74 percent after the data was published before pulling back slightly to show a fall of 2.37 percent to 4,064.97 points.

In Paris, the CAC 40 was down 4.46 percent to 3,020.16 points while in Frankfurt the DAX index lost 3.47 percent to 4,406.03 points.

The Vienna stock exchange's blue-chip ATX index was showing a loss of 5.07 percent or 89.39 points to 1,673.58 points.

The US economy lost a stunning 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate jumped to a 15-year high point of 6.7 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

The monthly report on non-farm payrolls, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, highlighted the severe retrenchment by companies in the face of a struggling economy and tight credit.

The number of job losses was much higher than the 325,000 expected by private forecasters.

The report also included a sharp upward revision in the number of job losses in the prior two months: October saw a loss of 403,000 jobs (up from an earlier estimate of 240,00) and September job losses were revised up to 320,000 from 284,000.