Jobs losses are accelerating in the US and spreading to a growing number of industry sectors, reinforcing a widely-held view that the economy is in recession. But, so far at least, the rate of job losses has been mild compared with previous economic cycles, raising investors’ hopes the economy is not falling off a cliff.

March non-farm payrolls, released on Friday, declined by 80,000, bringing the total number of jobs losses in the first three months of this year to 232,000, while the unemployment rate rose 0.3 per centage points to 5.1 per cent.