Not since the 1950s has job growth contracted for three months straight without recession.
The downturn was slightly less severe than in the second quarter, when growth contracted 0.2 percent.
If you've been with us all morning, you'll know that France's economy was a drag on growth, contracting by 0.1%.
Tom Sclafani, a spokesman for American Express, said credit lines offered when the economy was booming might not be appropriate when growth contracts.
It undermined one of Africa's sturdiest economies, and as growth contracted and its currency became worthless because of hyperinflation, joblessness and hunger grew.
Asia-Pacific carriers experienced a 6.8% fall in passenger traffic, and even Middle Eastern airlines, used to years of double-digit growth, contracted by 2.8%.
In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, real wage growth contracted 2.2 percent in 2009 after growth of 10.6 percent in 2008 and 17 percent in 2007, when wages were still recovering from the collapse that took place early in the transition to a market economy.
The country lost more than twice as many jobs in the second quarter as initially reported as economic growth contracted for the first time in more than five years.
Growth contracted 6.2 percent in the second quarter and is expected to decline nearly 7 percent this year, far worse than the 4.2 percent forecast just a few months ago by the so-called troika of international lenders: the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.
We scrutinize a firm's financial strength, cash flow, management, prospects for growth, contracts and other crucial factors to ensure that the company is rock-solid and its shares are reasonably priced.
Investment in home building was a drag on growth, contracting at a 27.5percentt rate, a touch less than the 29.1percentt decline reported last month.
