**The US economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, according to the latest figures from the Labor Department.**The higher-than-expected figures took the jobless rate from September’s figure of 9.8% to 10.2%, which was the highest level since April 1983.
The number of unemployed people rose 558,000 to 15.7 million.
Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed has risen 8.2 million, while the jobless rate has risen 5.3 percentage points.
But there was some better news with the revision of September’s figure from a loss of 263,000 jobs to a loss of 219,000 jobs.
The figures were particularly shocking following Thursday’s news of a fall in initial weekly jobless claims and the data earlier in the week that showed the US economy had grown 3.5% between July and September.
“It’s pretty disappointing overall,” said Richard Franulovich, senior currency strategist at Westpac in New York.
“Job losses are not moderating as quickly as I had hoped despite those earlier indicators on jobs.”
The dollar fell against both the euro and the yen following the release of the figures.