Employers eliminated 651,000 jobs, the third straight month that losses surpassed 600,000 -- the first time that’s happened since the data began in 1939, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Revisions for the prior two months lopped off an additional 161,000 positions.

Tumbling global demand is prompting companies from General Motors Corp. to Sears Holdings Corp. to step up firings, perpetuating a cycle of job losses and spending cuts. The Obama administration has set aside immediate concerns about a budget gap and pushed through a $787 billion stimulus plan aimed at creating or saving 3.5 million jobs.

“There is not a single sign that points to a bottom yet,” Ellen Zentner, a senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. “It is the worst recession in the postwar era.”

Treasuries were little changed, while stock-index futures advanced. Benchmark 10-year note yields were at 2.82 percent at 8:33 a.m. in New York. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index rose 0.4 percent to 688.60.

Deeper Declines

The payroll drop in January was revised up to 655,000 from 598,000 and December now shows a 681,000 drop, up from the 577,000 previously estimated. The December decline was the biggest since October 1949.

The U.S. economy has now lost almost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, the biggest employment slump of any economic downturn in the postwar period.

Payrolls were forecast to drop by 650,000, according to the median of 80 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from losses of 500,000 to 800,000.

The jobless rate was projected to jump to 7.9 percent. Forecasts ranged from 7.8 percent to 8.1 percent.

Today’s report showed factory payrolls fell by 168,000 after declining 257,000 in the prior month. Economists forecast a drop of 200,000. The decrease included a loss of 25,300 jobs in producers of machinery and 27,500 in makers of fabricated metal products.

Carmakers Shrink

Automakers, at the heart of the manufacturing slump, continued to slash jobs and trim costs to stay in business. General Motors last month said it would cut 47,000 more positions globally while Chrysler LLC announced 3,000 more layoffs.

Auto-parts makers are also suffering. Canton, Ohio-based Timken Co., the supplier of bearings to the world’s top five carmakers, said March 2 it would eliminate as many as 400 salaried jobs this year.

Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, subtracted 375,000 workers after cutting 276,000. Financial firms cut payrolls by 44,000, after a 52,000 decline the prior month. Retail payrolls decreased by 39,500 after a 38,500 drop.

Sears last week said it would shutter 24 stores, on top of eight closings announced earlier, after its fourth-quarter profit fell 55 percent due to weak holiday sales.

“This past year was a very difficult year for the world economies and for retail in the United States, and 2009 needs to be the year of restoring confidence and trust in our financial system,” Sears Chairman Edward Lampert said in a letter to shareholders.

Builders’ Losses

Payrolls at builders fell by 104,000 after decreasing by 118,000, as home sales and prices continued to tumble.

Government payrolls increased by 9,000 after a gain of 31,000 the prior month, one of the few areas still hiring. Another 26,000 jobs were added by education and health providers.

Employers are holding the line on hours. The average work week held at 33.3 hours in February. Average weekly hours worked by factory workers dropped to 39.6 hours from 39.8 hours, while overtime also decreased to 2.6 hours from 2.8 hours. That brought the average weekly earnings up by $1 to $615.05.

Workers’ average hourly wages rose 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $18.47 from $18.44 the prior month. Hourly earnings were 3.6 percent higher than February 2008. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.2 percent increase from January and a 3.8 percent gain for the 12-month period.

Bankruptcies Climb

Bankruptcy filings for individuals and companies surged 37 percent in February to more than 103,000, according to data compiled by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a service of Jupiter ESources LLC in Oklahoma City. Slumping sales have caused recent Chapter 11 filings by retailers such as Everything But Water LLC, the largest U.S. retailer of women’s swimwear, and Ritz Camera Centers Inc., the largest chain of camera stores.

Economists polled by Bloomberg last month forecast consumer spending will contract through the first six months of this year after sliding in the last half of 2008. Purchases have not contracted for four consecutive quarters since records began in 1947.

If the recession persists through the first half of this year, it would the longest since the Great Depression. The economy shrank at a 6.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2008, the weakest performance since 1982.

 SOURCE: Bloomberg