U.S. lost record 778,000 jobs in February

The United States lost an estimated 778,000 jobs in February, marking the biggest one-month loss of the recession so far, according to a report released today by TrimTabs Investment Research. The economy lost 2.1 million jobs in the past three months, which represents about 1.6% of the entire work force, said Charles Biderman, chief executive of the Sausalito, Calif.-based research firm. The loss as a percentage of the total work force is the largest since February 1975, the report said. “We expect the economy to lose at least 650,000 jobs in each of the next four to six months,” Mr. Biderman said in the statement. Also, weekly unemployment claims have exceeded 600,000 for the past four consecutive weeks. And continuing unemployment claims surpassed 5 million last week, the firm said.