US jobless rate falls to 10 pc,11K job cuts

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 130,000 last month and the unemployment rate to hold steady at a 26-1/2 year high of 10.2 per cent. US stock index futures extended gains on the data,while Treasury debt prices fall sharply. “This is good news. People don’t want to be hearing that pain is still spreading,” said William Larkin,Portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Boston. The data will take some pressure off President Barack Obama,a day after he appealed to the corporate sector,at a jobs summit he hosted,to join in the administration’s employment creation efforts.