WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — In the clearest suggestion yet of a recession, U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 63,000 in February, the second straight decline, the Labor Department reported Friday.
“Turn out the lights the party’s over,” wrote Joseph Brusuelas, U.S. chief economist for IDEAglobal. “We are in a recession.”
It was the largest drop in payrolls since March 2003, when the economy was struggling through a jobless recovery.
The drop in payrolls was largely unexpected; economists were …
