The February employment report, released Mar. 6, was not as bad as some on Wall Street had feared, but it was still pretty lousy. Nonfarm payrolls fell another 651,000 in February, while the unemployment rate jumped to 8.1% from 7.6%. The deep job losses point to protracted weakness in the U.S. labor market, with Standard & Poor's forecasting another 2 million job losses by fall.

Wall Street economists and analysts had plenty to say about the jobs report and other key topics on Mar. 6. Here's a sampling:

William Knapp, MainStay Investments

February payroll and unemployment data came in pretty much as anticipated. The Labor Dept. reported Friday in its Payroll Survey that the U.S. economy shed 651,000 jobs for the month. In the separate Household Survey, the unemployment rate rose half a percent, to 8.1%.

Revisions to January and December cropped an additional 161,000 jobs. Cumulative jobs lost since the current recession began ... Read more »

The United States economy shrank at its fastest pace in a quarter century from October through December, the government reported on Friday, in the broadest accounting yet of the toll of the credit crisis. Consumer spending and business investment all but disappeared, and economists said the contraction was likely to continue at an alarming pace well into the summer.

The gross domestic product — a crucial measure of economic performance — shrank at an annu ... Read more »