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Nigel Gault, chief US economist at Global Insight, described the unemployment numbers as "horrendous".
"This is an economy that is in absolute free fall right now," Mr Gault said: "Confidence has collapsed."
More than 1.5 million Americans have been made redundant in the past six months.
Following the steeper-than-expected decline and a $1.43 fall in the price of oil to $42.24 a barrel, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 224 points or 2.6 per cent, to 8,153.... [yo-yoing, unstable Dow-Jones Index]
The US car industry is also expected to lay off thousands of workers, taking the unemployment rate to an estimated 8 per cent by the end of the year....
Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, said: "This is almost indescribably terrible. In the past six montsh, the US has lost 1.55 million jobs, almost as many as were lost in the whole 2001 recession, which included 9/11 and the two months after. The pace of job losses is accelerating alarmingly."
