economy To faster change

US employment growth ground to a halt in August as sagging confidence discouraged businesses from hiring, piling pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more stimulus to aid the economy.
Nonfarm payrolls were unchanged last month, the Labour Department said on Friday, while employers created a combined 58,000 fewer jobs than had been thought in June and July.
The grim report fuelled recession fears. Prices for US stocks and oil fell, while US government debt prices rose as traders bet on a further easing of monetary policy.
"The economy is slowly grinding to a halt," said Steve Blitz, a senior economist for ITG Investment Research in New York.
Obama pressure
The report was the weakest reading on jobs in nearly a year and far below the 75,000 job gain Wall Street had expected.
The unemployment rate, however, held at 9.1 per cent as a survey of households found both job growth and an expanding labour force.
With the jobless rate stuck above 9 per cent and confidence falling, US President Barack Obama faces pressure to come up with ways to spur job creation.
The health of the labour market could determine whether he wins re-election next year.
Obama will lay out a new jobs plan in a speech to the nation on Thursday.
"This better be one hell of a speech next week," said Sal Arnuk, the co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
Friday's data, which pushed the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index down by two per cent in early trading, could strengthen the hand of officials at the US central bank who were ready at their August meeting to do more to help the sputtering economy.
The Federal Reserve's next meeting is a two-day gathering, scheduled for September 20-21.
The US central bank cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and it has bought $2.3tn in securities in two bouts of bond buying, known as quantitative easing, or QE.
Many analysts say its arsenal is now largely depleted, although expectations grew on Friday of further action.