The economy lost jobs in September for the first time in over two years as the convulsions of a devastating Gulf Coast hurricane rattled the labor market, pushing the unemployment rate up to 5.1 percent.
Payrolls fell by 35,000 in September, the Labor Department said. That marked the first decline since May 2003, when the labor market was struggling to get back on its feet after being set back by the 2001 recession. The drop in September was the largest since a decline of 54,000 jobs in April 2003.
