Main Street caught up to Wall Street, as the labor market showed continued weakness. Big gains have ruled the market most recently, but stocks slid in afternoon trading on concerns that private sector jobs continued to be cut.  The Dow Jones industrials were down 77 points, or 0.8 per cent, the S& P’s 500 stock index was off by 0.7 per cent, and the Nasdaq was down 1.3 per cent, not helped by losses in tech giants such as Intel and Oracle.

This was the biggest market drop since early July, caused mostly by fears that the job cuts could pose additional threats to household finances, consumer spending and families’ abilities to make ends meet.

The government will report first-time jobless claims on Thursday, and release its monthly assessment of the labor market on Friday. Economists expect that the report will not be favorable, estimating a loss of 328,000 jobs in July, after a loss of 476,000 jobs in June.