World stock markets plunged Friday in the wake of a sell-off on Wall Street amid mounting concerns about a slumping US economy and its impact on global growth. The US Labor Department said payrolls shrank by 84,000 last month, more than the 75,000 economists predicted, and higher than the 51,000 jobs lost in July. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent. Friday's report followed disappointing reports on US retail sales and jobless claims overnight, eroding investors' hopes for a late-year recovery in the world's biggest economy. US stocks tumbled Friday morning after a government report showed unemployment at a five-year high, exacerbating fears about the recession. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 0.8 percent almost an hour into the session. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index lost 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 1 percent. Britain's top share index ended down 2.3 percent on Friday, registering its biggest weekly fall in six years, as banks and commodity stocks fell on global economic worries after the US jobless rate jumped last month. Germany's DAX lost 2.62 percent to 6,114.96, and France's CAC 40 fell 2.38 percent to 4,201.76. __
