Shares fall worldwide after rise in US unemployment

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Investors are growing increasingly worried that it is the US economy, rather than Europe, that now looks weak as Barack Obama's measures have failed to create jobs.

Having been up for most of the day, the FTSE-100 Index fell following the US figures, down by 22.34 at 5343 this afternoon. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 75 points at 10600.

US firms hired 20,000 fewer new workers than expected in July, with non-farm payrolls rising by 71,000. Overall employment in public and private sectors fell 131,000 and unemployment held at 9.5%. Unemployment is just under 8% in Britain.

Optimists argued that at least the numbers of people on companies' payrolls were still rising, but the pace of that improvement has been disappointingly slow.

Obama's poll ratings have been falling as concerns grow about America's so-called "jobless recovery" from the economic crisis.

"The economic slowdown we've seen will probably extend another two to three months, if not longer," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at investment group The Davidson Co.

Job growth in the US has declined after fairly strong gains between February and April, jeopardising the country's recovery from the worst downturn since the Thirties.