The U.S. jobless rate climbed in March to the highest level since 1983 and manufacturing shrank, putting the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in seven decades, economists said before reports this week.

Unemployment jumped to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labor Department’s April 3 report. The figures may also show payrolls fell by 660,000 workers, bringing total job losses since the contraction began to 5 million.

Factories are projected to keep cutting staff and output to reduce inventories that piled up after sales sank in the U.S. and abroad. The deteriorating outlook means President Barack Obama’s plan to save or create 3.5 million jobs by boosting government spending and cutting taxes will still leave the country shy of pre-recession employment levels.

“This recession is the deepest and the broadest of the postwar era,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. “One thing that happens in recessions is that manufacturing gets clobbered.”

Should it persist into April, the now 16-month recession would surpass similar contractions in the early 1970s and 1980s as the longest since the Great Depression. The magnitude of the current slump is still an open question.

Manufacturing probably contracted in March for the 15th time in the last 16 months, the Tempe, Arizona-based Institute for Supply Management may report on April 1. The group’s factory index was probably at 36 this month compared with February’s 35.8, according to the survey median. Readings less than 50 signal contraction.

Source: Bloomberg.com

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