US unemployment soared to 8.5 per cent last month, its highest level since 1983, as the recession savaged the labour force, official figures revealed on Friday.

The latest non-farm payrolls data showed that another 663,000 jobs were lost in March, taking the total amount of jobs lost in the first three months of this year to more than 2m. In all, more than 5m jobs have gone since the recession began in December 2007, almost two-thirds of them in the past five months.