U.S. stock futures declined Friday morning, continuing Thursday's sell-off as investors awaited nervously to a key monthly employment report after a week of several generally negative economic releases, such as Thursday's weekly jobless claims and monthly manufacturing data that came in far worse than expected, causing U.S. indices to slump 2-3%.As for labor market, it seems that even as the economy shows signs of life, some employers are still cutting jobs and are reluctant to hire in the worst recession since the 1930s. At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, the U.S. Labor Department is due to release its monthly nonfarm payroll report. Economists expect employers have cut 175,000 jobs in September after cutting 216,000 in August, according to Briefing.com. The unemployment rate is expected to have edged up to 9.8% in September, from 9.7% the prior month. However, some fear it could top 10%, a number it hasn't reached since June 1983.
Also due out today at 10:00 a.m. is August factory orders, which is expected to remain flat.
Meanwhile, overseas, world stock markets fell Friday ahead of the U.S. jobs report. Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE 100 were down 0.5 percent and France's CAC-40 was 1.1 percent lower by midday. In Asia, Japan and Hong Kong dropped around 2 percent.
And it's not just in the U.S. that unemployment is rising, but around the world too as the recession leaves few corners untouched. Unemployment rates in the 30 wealthy countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development range from a low of 3.2 percent in the Netherlands to 17.6 percent in Spain, according to July figures. In the developing world, the picture is much the same.
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