Employers, excluding farms, cut payrolls by 51,000 in July.
Governments cut payrolls by 15,000 in April.
Companies across a variety of industries have been slashing their payrolls by the thousands.
Caterpillar, the maker of heavy equipment, is slashing its payrolls by 16percentt.
To be precise, private firms created 17,000 jobs while governments trimmed payrolls by the same amount.
Companies must increase payrolls by about 100,000 people every month to keep pace with population growth.
Since December 1999, he said, local governments and schools have increased their payrolls by 63,000 employees.
Employers cut payrolls by 84,000 in August, the eighth consecutive month of cuts, the department said.
Companies cut their payrolls by 651,000 jobs in February, a record third month of job losses above 600,000.
Economists had expected the nation's employers to increase their payrolls by about 205,000 net, but instead payrolls increased by just 120,000.
The biggest job losses last month occurred in Illinois, where employers cut payrolls by 24,900, and in Florida, which had a 22,100 decrease.
