This morning's release of jobs and unemployment data continue the streak of unhappy economic data. In August, the unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent from July's 5.7 percent. The jobless rate has not been this high since Sept. 2003. Employers surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that they had cut 84,000 jobs since July. However, the 17,000 jobs added governments hides the 101,000 job losses in the private job market. Since January, private employers have reduced payrolls by over 750,000 jobs. The data are further evidence that the economy will continue slow in the coming months. The report may fuel concern that consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, will decline and bring the expansion to a halt. Stock-index futures dropped, Treasury notes climbed and the dollar pared gains. "`It certainly increases the probability that we really are in a recession,"' William Poole, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "It is a weak number, including the revisions.'" (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge)