Worst job losses in 60 years expected

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Based on the old rule of thumb that a recession is when you lose your job and a depression is when I lose mine, 650,000 families fell into a depression in February, according to the latest forecasts.

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The Labor Department will release its latest snapshot of the job market on Friday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists are predicting nonfarm payrolls fell by 650,000 in February, the largest one-month job loss in almost 60 years as the recession tightened its grip on the economy. The unemployment rate probably rose to 8%, the economists said, up from 7.6% in January and up 1.8 percentage points in the past six months, the fastest increase in more than 30 years...more

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