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Federal health experts said Thursday that drug labeling for Yaz and other widely-used birth control pills should be updated to emphasize recent data suggesting a higher risk of blood clots with the drugs than older contraceptive pills.

The Food and Drug Administration’s panel of experts voted 21-5 Thursday that labeling on the popular drugs made by Bayer is inadequate and needs more information about the potential risk of blood clots in the legs and lungs.

Yaz, its predecessor Yasmin and related prescriptions use a manmade hormone called drospirenone, which mimics the naturally occurring female hormone progesterone. Approved in 2006, Yaz grew into the best-selling birth control pill in the U.S. by 2008, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in TV and magazine advertising that emphasized its ability to clear up acne and other hormonal side effects. But prescriptions have fallen more than 80 percent in the last two years amid safety concerns.

Panelists spent more than nine hours discussing often conflicting data on the blood clot risk of drospirenone-containing drugs compared with older medications. While the group disagreed on the quality of the evidence, the overwhelming majority said it should be clearly stated in the label, including the potentially fatal nature of blood clots.

“Clearly the wording is inadequate and incomplete,” said Dr. Richard Bockman of New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery. “Adverse events have to be made graphic so physicians and patients are aware of the consequences.”

In an earlier vote, panelists voted 15-11 that the pills remain a beneficial option for preventing pregnancy. The majority ruling amounts to a vote of confidence for keeping the drugs on the market, though well over a third of panelists voted against the drug’s overall benefit, citing numerous alternatives available.

“I can see no real group of patients that this drug benefited over existing alternatives,” said Mark Woods of New York University School of Medicine. “Without any clear benefit, and given the potentially catastrophic risk, I voted no.”

Two large studies conducted by German drugmaker Bayer have shown no difference in blood clots between patients taking the company’s drugs and patients taking older medications.

But since 2009, five large studies have suggested drospirenone-containing pills carry a slightly higher risk of blood clots than older birth control pills, though events in both groups are very rare. Even a slightly higher risk can be critical because blood clots can trigger heart attacks, strokes and blockages in lungs or blood vessels.

The most recent study by the FDA found women taking Yasmin had a 75 percent higher chance of suffering a blood clot than patients taking a combination of older drugs. The absolute risk of a blood clot is still far less than a fraction of a percent.

FDA scientists noted shortcomings with all the recent studies of Yaz and Yasmin, including missing information about patient weight and smoking status, which can increase the risk of blood clots. While not definitive, panelists said the information should be explained clearly in the labeling for physicians and patients no fax pay day loan.

“I think we can do a much better job than labels I have seen,” said Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, of the Morehouse School of Medicine.

Panelists said future studies must take into account patients’ lifestyle, race and family history to accurately capture blood clot risk.

With the slogan, “beyond birth control,” Bayer’s advertisements pitched Yaz to women in their 20s as drug with “lifestyle” benefits over older contraceptives. One advertisements featured young women singing the Twisted Sister anthem, “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” while popping balloons labeled “moodiness,” “bloating” and “acne.”

Within two years of its marketing approval, Yaz had grown into the best-selling birth control pill in the U.S. with peak sales of $781 million in 2009, according to data from IMS Health. But sales plummeted from one million per month to about 200,000 per month after the company added information about studies that found a heightened risk of blood clots. Additionally, Bayer was forced to run corrective advertisements after the FDA said the company’s marketing campaign overstated Yaz’s effectiveness in treating premenstrual mood disorders, and used distracting music and visuals to downplay the drug’s side effects.

Earlier in the day, panelists heard more than a half-dozen patients or their family members who blame Yaz or Yasmin for sometimes deadly blood clots.

Cindy Rippee spoke about her last conversation with her 20-year-old daughter Elizabeth Rippee, who died Christmas Eve 2008 when a blood clot traveled to her lung. Rippee said her daughter had been taking Yasmin for about two months, after taking another birth control pill, Tri-Sprintec, for a year previously.

“My daughter was a very smart young woman. If Elizabeth had been clearly told that Yasmin had more risk, maybe twice as much risk, as other pills she never would have switched to Yasmin and would be here today,” said Rippee, of Escondido, Calif.

Rippee is among 4,000 to 6,000 plaintiffs suing Bayer in personal injury lawsuits pending throughout the U.S. court system.

Yaz and other drospirenone-containing pills accounted for 16 percent of the hormonal contraceptives used in the U.S. last year, behind Warner Chilcott’s Loestren, Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho Tri-Cyclen and several other oral contraceptives.

The FDA has not set a timetable for any changes in Yaz’s labeling. For now, many doctors say they don’t expect to stop prescribing the drugs anytime soon. They point out that the risk of blood clots with any birth control pill is still far lower than that associated with pregnancy and birth, when surging hormone levels and reduced blood flow dramatically increase the chances of clotting.

Studies suggest that 10 in 10,000 women taking the newer birth control pills will experience a blood clot, compared with 20 in 10,000 women who are pregnant or have just given birth.

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Ralcorp Holdings is two months away from completing the spin-off of its branded cereal business, Post Holdings, yet company officials say they remain in buy mode.

In a conference call with analysts today, St. Louis-based Ralcorp’s executives said the spin-off of Post as a separate, publicly traded company will occur by the end of January 2012. Ralcorp, which has grown through acquisitions over the past decade, plans to focus on private label cereal, pasta, frozen bakery goods and other foods.  

“As the leader in private brand foods, we continue to be excited about the opportunities that exist in the private brand, or store-brand market,” Kevin Hunt, Ralcorp’s co-chief executive and president said in the call. 

Ralcorp completed its acquisition of Kansas City-based American Italian Pasta Co. for $1.2 billion in July 2010, which helped boost Ralcorp’s net sales to $4.7 billion in fiscal 2011, up from $4 billion in 2010.

In October, Ralcorp closed on its $545 million purchase of the North American refrigerated dough business from Sara Lee, which included Sara Lee’s private label biscuits, crescent rolls, pizza and pie crusts and toaster pastries cash advance now.

More acquisitions may be on the horizon. “When we look at the current acquisition pipeline, we’ve identified approximately $10 billion in additional annual sales representing 50 individual companies that meet our initial criteria for strategic acquisition, ranked by margins and synergies with our existing business,” Hunt said in the call.

Morningstar analyst Erin Lash wrote in a research note today that Ralcorp faces competitive pressures in the private label cereal business, however. “Branded firms like General Mills and Kellogg are prioritizing investments behind product innovation and marketing that resonate with consumers, which could further pressure Ralcorp’s cereal sales, in our view,” Lash wrote.

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The former chief executive of Olympus Corp. spoke with Japanese investigators Thursday, reiterating his determination to get to the bottom of one of Japan’s biggest financial scandals involving a cover-up of massive investment losses.

Michael Woodford, 51, plans to confront the board of the Japanese camera and medical equipment maker at a meeting Friday _ a day after speaking with the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission.

Woodford, who was fired last month after questioning dubious accounting at Olympus, remains on the board and can only be removed by shareholders. He declined comment on what he was going to tell prosecutors. He returned to Japan on Wednesday.

Under intense pressure, the embattled company has admitted that a $687 million payment to an obscure Wall Street firm for financial advice and expensive acquisitions were used to cover up investment losses dating to the 1990s.

The board abruptly ousted Woodford last month for questioning the deals and payment. At the time, Olympus said Woodford was sacked because his management style was incompatible with the company’s culture.

The scandal has cast a harsh light on corporate governance in Japan, which has been repeatedly criticized as falling behind global standards. Recent media reports have also pointed to possible ties between Tokyo-based Olympus and organized crime.

A third-party panel created by Olympus to investigate its accounting has said it has so far found no evidence of any ties with the underworld.

Woodford told the throngs of media gathered at Narita International on Wednesday that he is not afraid to be back in Japan and would press for answers during his stay.

“This isn’t going to go away, the truth will come out,” he said. “Please now have the dignity, at least the dignity, to accept that the game is up.”

Woodford went public with his concerns after his sacking, and has become a hero among circles hopeful for better corporate governance in Japan payday advances.

Tsuyoshi Kikukawa resigned as president on Oct. 26 and was replaced by Shuichi Takayama. The company blamed the accounting scheme on Kikukawa, former executive vice president Hisashi Mori and ex-auditor Hideo Yamada.

Prosecutors are questioning the executives, according to Kyodo news agency.

Olympus now risks being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange unless it can rectify past filings with regulators by reporting revised earnings by Dec. 14.

The company’s shares lost four-fifths of their value after the scandal erupted in mid-October, but have since recovered on optimism that Olympus will avoid removal from the stock exchange.

The issue gained 17 percent Thursday, its maximum gain allowed for a single day, to finish at 1,019 yen.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange was closed Wednesday for a national holiday. Olympus shares surged 20 percent Tuesday after the panel said it had found no evidence of links to organized crime.

The practice of hiding investment losses through funny bookkeeping and paper companies has surfaced before in Japan, especially in the 1990s, when mergers and acquisitions became a way for companies to survive in the depressed economy that followed the bursting of Japan’s real estate bubble.

Such scandals have previously ensnared other major names in Japan Inc., such as Yamaichi Securities Co., which went bankrupt in 1997, and cosmetics maker Kanebo, which was forced to undergo a government-backed bailout in 2005.

Woodford is speaking on a panel and with reporters Thursday evening, and has a press conference Friday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.

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Italian Premier Mario Monti urged lawmakers Friday to not “pull the plug” on his government before elections in 2013, no matter how politically painful the measures in his plan to save Italy from its debt crisis.

Monti also told the lower Chamber of Deputies ahead of a confidence vote in his new government that he would travel to Brussels next week to the European Commission and would meet with the French and German leaders to map out strategy.

“The job that I have had the honor of receiving is nearly impossible, but we will succeed,” Monti said.

On Thursday, Monti’s government won a confidence vote 281-25 in the Senate after he warned all Italians would need to make sacrifices to get the country out of its massive debt hole.

Monti is under enormous pressure to boost growth and bring down Italy’s high debt, which at 120 percent of GDP is among the highest in the eurozone. The aim is not only to save Italy from succumbing to the debt crisis but to prevent a catastrophic disintegration of the common euro currency.

Monti told lawmakers his strategy had three main pillars: Budgetary rigor, economic growth and social fairness. He pledged to reform the pension system, re-impose a tax on homes annulled by Berlusconi’s government, fight tax evasion, streamline civil court proceedings, get more women and youth into the work force and cut political costs.

On Friday, his remarks were more aimed at answering lingering doubts among those who voted against his government, have conditioned their approval on how long it lasts, or took to the streets Thursday to protest his cabinet of bankers, university professors and CEOs.

“We won’t be around for long,” Monti said. “We won’t last a minute longer than the time this parliament gives us their confidence.”

But he stressed that he never would have gathered together such a high-caliber government if the intent wasn’t to govern until the natural end of the legislative term, in spring 2013. He has said anything less than that would undermine the government’s credibility.

While acknowledging the absolute dependence of his government on parliament, he jokingly asked to avoid using terms like “pull the plug” because it implied the government was some kind of an “artificial lung” when in fact it is leading the country through a profound crisis online payday loan lenders.

“We’re not asking for blind trust, but vigilant trust,” Monti said.

But he also issued a warning of sorts, noting the sense of desperation among ordinary Italians about Italy’s economic mess: “In giving us confidence or taking it away, you must also realize the consequences for yourselves among Italians.”

It was a clear message to Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, which has said it would only support Monti’s government for as long as needed to pass the measures demanded by the EU.

Party secretary Angelino Alfano told state television Thursday that the party hadn’t given Monti a deadline. “But what is certain is that we are making the link between the government and its program, and once the program is finished we’re heading to the polls.”

Europe has already bailed out three small countries _ Greece, Ireland and Portugal _ but the Italian economy, the third-largest in the 17-nation eurozone, is too big for Europe to rescue. Borrowing costs on 10-year Italian bonds were at 6.75 percent Friday, after spiking briefly over 7 percent Thursday, a level that forced those other countries into bailouts.

In a conference call Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Monti agreed that their countries have a special responsibility to the eurozone as its three largest economies and founding members of the European Union.

Monti said his meeting with Sarkozy and Merkel would mark the start of “a permanent Italian contribution to the solution of the debt problem.”

Still, it’s not clear how many sacrifices Italians are willing or able to make. Students demonstrated across the country on Thursday under the banner: “Save the schools, not the banks.”

Monti’s ambitious plans overhaul just about every aspect of the Italian economy _ from the organization of local governments to the selection process for teachers. Monti indicated he would seek to lower taxes on labor, while raising those on consumption. And he pledged measures _ such as setting a limit on cash transactions _ to tackle tax evasion, which he estimated is worth 20 percent of GDP.

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Greece’s new prime minister will present his policy platform in parliament Monday, ahead of a midweek confidence vote in his coalition government that is tasked with implementing crucial reforms and securing the country’s international loan lifeline.

Lucas Papademos, a former central banker picked by broad party consensus last week after the previous Socialist government imploded, is expected to easily win Wednesday’s confidence vote.

His interim coalition administration is backed by Greece’s two biggest parties and a small right-wing nationalist party. It has a mandate to coast the austerity-fatigued country over the next three months, with national elections tentatively scheduled for February.

Tough work lies ahead. Papademos’ government must pass the 2012 austerity budget, approve a new euro130 billion ($177 billion) international bailout cobbled together last month, and see through lagging reforms that will include thousands of public sector layoffs.

Most crucially, it must secure the next euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment of the rescue loans without which the country will go bankrupt before Christmas.

Greece depends on loans from a euro110 billion ($150 billion) rescue package agreed in 2010, when huge borrowing costs blocked the debt-crippled country from international markets. That bailout later proved inadequate, forcing the new bailout agreed on Oct. 26 that will also see the reduction of the country’s privately held debt by some euro100 billion, or 50 percent.

Athens is expected to officially launch talks in the next few days with banks and other private bond holders on the debt writedown.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos has said he hopes the next loan installment can be approved by his 16 eurozone colleagues in a Thursday teleconference. Greece’s eurozone partners are first seeking a written commitment from Athens to support the second bailout, signed by Papademos, the leaders of the main Socialist and conservative parties, the central bank governor and finance minister low fee pay day loans.

But conservative leader Antonis Samaras insisted Monday that he would not sign, arguing that he has already pledged to back the deal and his word should suffice.

“Some say that to unblock the (euro8 billion) installment we need to sign a joint statement with all the parties that support this new transitional government,” Samaras told his New Democracy party lawmakers. “I said it before and I say it now: I will not sign such statements.”

Samaras pledged to back the interim government but said elections must be held as initially agreed on Feb. 19, and promised, if elected, to cut taxes.

Greeks have suffered some 20 months of harsh austerity, with repeated pension and salary cuts compounded by a spate of tax increases. Unions have reacted with a wave of general strikes and demonstrations, many of which led to riots. A small left-wing party has called an anti-austerity protest just ahead of Papademos’ speech in parliament, while civil servants will hold work stoppages Tuesday.

However, Greeks appear relieved by the formation of the new government last Friday, after ten days of political wrangling triggered by the resignation of Socialist prime minister George Papandreou amid a party revolt halfway through his four-year term.

Some 73 percent back Papademos’ selection according to a survey in Sunday’s To Vima newspaper, and 78 percent approved the coalition government. But only 26 percent said they expected the three parties to support the government’s work, with 56 percent voicing fears that the parties will focus on campaigning for February’s elections. The Nov. 11 poll of 1,000 people gave a 3 percent margin of error.

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The European Union, never known for its light touch, is pushing through the euro crisis with an unusually heavy hand. Surprisingly, few people seem to be complaining.

Brussels _ and the leaders of the EU’s two most powerful countries _ have come close to ordering that a government of national unity be formed in Greece, that a national referendum there be scrapped, and that Italy accept humiliating international financial inspection of its books.

But voters in those beleaguered member states seem weary for now of politics and the fine mess their elected leaders have gotten them into. They’ve looked over the precipice and seem to have decided just for the moment to forego politics, ballot-going and little quibbles over sovereignty.

The normally fiercely independent-minded people of Greece and Italy _ both countries in dire trouble over their sovereign debts _ seem willing to accept as their new prime ministers technocrats who are veterans of pan-European institutions with reputations for meddling in national affairs.

The new prime minister of Greece is Lucas Papademos, a 64-year-old former vice president of the European Central Bank. The expected new leader of Italy, once the flamboyant and often embarrassing Silvio Berlusconi resigns, is 68-year-old Mario Monti _ a former competition commission for none other than the EU.

It’s beyond doubt that France and Germany play a huge role in making decisions on behalf of all 27 EU nations. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel often meet in advance of EU summits to hash out a common position on the issues of the day, which they then present to the other 25 heads of government, almost as a fait accompli.

These pre-summit meetings have evolved now into an informal committee called the Frankfurt Group, which also includes officials from the EU the IMF.

And though the European Union casts itself as a global supporter of democracy, some recent actions by Sarkozy, Merkel and EU officials based in Brussels could be viewed pretty much as diktats that were not particularly deferential to the rights of national voters to shape national policies.

EU leaders erupted in rage at the call by George Papandreou, then Greece’s prime minister, for putting the terms of Greece’s bailout to a referendum. After Merkel and Sarkozy summoned him to the G-20 summit in Cannes to explain himself, the referendum was duly scrapped.

Wielding the power to withhold a desperately needed euro8 billion ($11 billion) batch of bailout money, EU leaders strongly urged that Greece’s two main parties join in a government of national unity _ which they did. And EU honchos made no secret of their preference for Papademos to lead that government of national unity.

So, after four days of wrangling, the Socialists and Conservatives tapped Papademos.

In Italy, EU officials imposed International Monetary Fund financial monitoring on Italy _ essentially an expression of mistrust of the elected government there.

But people in Greece and Italy, feeling badly let down by the governments they elected, do not seem to be taking offense at the outside help.

In Greece, where democracy was invented, recession-weary citizens seem less than keen to hurry back to the ballot box. According to a recent poll, 79 percent of them opposed Papandreou’s plan to hold the referendum on a bailout. The Alco telephone poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 2-4 also found that more than half of Greek voters _ 52 percent _ preferred the formation of a coalition government to early general elections. No margin of error was given.

Italians are angry, but their wrath is directed more toward Berlusconi and Italian politicians in general for the mess they are in, rather than at EU headquarters in Brussels.

“We’re angry with our government for its lack of action,” said Amadeo Lefevre, as he arranged the shelves in his bookshop a few blocks from Berlusconi’s residence and the Chamber of Deputies. “They have no policy, no strategy.”

Adriaan Schout, an expert on European politics at the Clingendael international affairs institute in the Netherlands, said voters have reason to feel let down by what their democracies have achieved.

“Politics have done great damage to the economic and monetary union,” Schout said.

Furthermore, he said, it is not the business of democracy to hold referendums on every issue that comes along, and the lack of them does not make the EU undemocratic. Democracy sets goals and parameters, and then it is up to technocrats to implement those policies, he said.

But if the EU is in fact democratic _ it has its rules, it is governed by elected heads of government and an elected parliament _ another unelected force is at play in the current crisis: the markets.

Market reaction played perhaps as big a role in forcing the cancellation of Greece’s proposed referendum as did the EU or Sarkozy or Merkel. And those faceless markets also put huge pressure on Berlusconi to go.

The reason the markets are now able to wield such power is because the political class has fumbled and simply handed it over to them.

“It is not the markets who have a 120 percent public debt,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a political analyst at Rome’s LUISS University. “It is the politicians who created the 120 percent public debt. These debts are now offering the markets the chance to dictate their conditions.”

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The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 400 points Wednesday after Italy’s borrowing costs soared and talks collapsed in Greece on forming a new government.

The yield on the benchmark Italian government bond spiked above 7 percent, evidence that investors are losing faith in the country’s ability to repay its debt. Greece, Portugal and Ireland required bailouts when their bond yields rose above the same mark. Unlike those countries, Italy’s $2.6 trillion in debt is too large for other European countries to rescue.

In Greece, power-sharing talks fell apart between the country’s two main political parties, raising doubt about whether the country will be able to receive the next installment of emergency loans it needs to avoid default.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi promised late Tuesday to step aside after a new budget is passed, but there are concerns that the transition to a new government will be difficult. Markets see Berlusconi as an impediment to the kind of far-reaching economic reforms Italy needs to remain solvent.

“The market loves a quick solution and we’re obviously not getting one,” said Mark Lehmann, director of equities of JMP Securities. “We’ve had a strong rally off the bottom and any piece of bad news is going to be responded to negatively.”

The Dow sank 420 points, or 3.5 percent, to 11,743 as of 2:26 p.m. Eastern. If that holds, it would be the largest one-day drop for the Dow since August 4.

The Dow fell 276 on Monday of last week and then 297 points the following day after the Greek prime minister said he would put an unpopular package of austerity cuts to a public vote cash advance no faxing. That raised the prospect that the measures would fail and Greece would default. The referendum was later scrapped.

The S&P 500 lost 45 points, or 3.6 percent, to 1,230. The S&P is now negative for the year again. The index has alternated between small gains and losses for 2011 since Oct. 26.

The Nasdaq composite slid 103, or 3.7 percent, to 2,624

The slide was broad. Only two stocks in the S&P 500 index rose. Materials and financial companies fell the most. Morgan Stanley fell 8 percent and coal producer Alpha Natural Resources fell 8 percent.

Markets fear that a chaotic default by either Greece or Italy would lead to huge losses for European banks. That, in turn, could cause a global lending freeze that might escalate into another credit crisis similar to the one in 2008 after Lehman Brothers fell.

Some analysts fear that the euro itself could fall, which would lead to inflation and a breakdown in free trade agreements in the European Union.

European markets also fell sharply. Italy’s benchmark index plunged 3.8 percent. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC-40 each lost 2.2 percent.

The prices of assets seen as safe havens rose sharply. The dollar jumped 1.6 percent versus the euro. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.97 percent from 2.08 percent late Tuesday, a steep drop.

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The American economy added 80,000 jobs in October, and job growth in the two previous months was much stronger than first thought, an encouraging sign as the nation searches for a way out of the jobs crisis.

The unemployment rate dropped to 9 percent from 9.1 percent, the first time it has fallen since July and the lowest rate since April, the government said Friday.

“Those are pretty good signs,” said Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We’re hanging in there.”

Economists surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data, had expected a gain of 100,000 jobs. It takes a gain of about 125,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth, more to bring down the unemployment rate.

The private sector added 104,000 jobs for the month.

The overall jobs figure was the smallest in four months. Still, there were smaller, more encouraging signs in the government’s monthly snapshot of unemployment, one of the most closely watched economic reports.

The Labor Department said the economy added 102,000 more jobs in August and September than first thought. And the ranks of the long-term unemployed, people out of a job for at least six months, fell sharply to 5.9 million.

Those signs further ease fears of a new recession, which had loomed over the economy this past summer. Europe is wrestling with a debt crisis, however, and even if it dodges catastrophe, a recession there would be a drag on the U.S. economy.

The job market turned consistently negative in February 2008. The nation lost jobs for 25 months in a row _ almost 8.8 million of them in all. Since then, the economy has only recovered 2.3 million jobs.

The unemployment rate has hovered around 9 percent for more than two years, and the Federal Reserve said this week that it will is not expected to fall significantly through the end of next year.

That means President Barack Obama will almost certainly go before voters next November seeking a second term with the highest unemployment of any sitting president since World War II.

Obama, appearing at the G-20 economic summit in Cannes, France, said the U.S. economy is growing “way too slow.” He repeated his call for Republicans in Congress to pass his $447 billion jobs bill, a mix of tax cuts and spending on roads and rail lines.

“There’s no excuse for inaction,” the president said.

Republicans in the Senate on Thursday defeated the infrastructure portion of Obama’s proposal. GOP lawmakers opposed the bill’s tax surcharge on the wealthy and the additional spending.

Republicans laid blame on Obama and Democrats in Congress.

“At virtually every step of the way, President Obama and Democrats have increased uncertainty,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas. “This has discouraged businesses from making new investments.”

Hiring last month was broad. Professional and business services, which includes the accounting, engineering, and temporary help industries, added 32,000 jobs. Hotels, restaurants, and entertainment companies added 22,000. Health care added 12,000.

The construction sector cut 20,000 jobs for the month, the most since January. That industry is examined closely because a pickup in the housing market could add force to the economic recovery.

Government, meanwhile, cut 24,000 jobs. That’s unusual for an economic recovery, when state, local and federal governments typically hire workers.

The number of discouraged workers _ those who have given up looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed, fell. And fewer people with part-time jobs were looking for full-time work.

“Overall, while this report is not good enough, several key numbers are now moving in the right direction,” Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency told clients. “The odds of significantly better employment reports over the next few months seem to be improving.”

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in July, August and September, its best performance in a year. In the first half of this year, the economy expanded at the slowest pace since the Great Recession ended in June 2009.

The stronger economy over the summer was powered by consumer spending, which grew three times as fast as it had this spring. Americans spent more even in the face of fears of a new recession and wild gyrations in the stock market.

Still, companies appear to be waiting for customer demand to pick up even more before they hire again in great numbers. They learned during and after the recession to live with fewer employees.

Worker productivity rose from July through September by the most in a year and a half. More productivity is usually good because companies pay workers more without raising prices. But workers generally are not getting raises this time.

The Federal Reserve this week lowered its forecast from economic growth to 1.7 percent for this year, down from a forecast of 2.7 percent issued over the summer. It also says unemployment will not come down substantially through the end of 2012.

The economy has absorbed a series of body blows this year.

In the spring, the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan disrupted supplies of cars and other products. The price of gas rose to a national average of almost $4 a gallon.

Then this summer, Washington was seized by gridlock over whether to raise the borrowing limit for the federal government and how best to tackle the nation’s long-term debt problem.

More recently, economists have fretted over a debt crisis in Europe. That continent buys 20 percent of American exports, so a slowdown there would take a bite out of the U.S. economy, too.

The Greek prime minister this week called for a surprise popular vote on a European plan to bail out the debt-addled Greek economy. He later backed down, but even if Greece is stabilized, other European economies are weighed down by debt.

The dollar has jumped against the yen after Japanese monetary authorities intervened in the currency market to weaken the yen, whose recent appreciation has hurt the country’s vital exporters.

Monday’s action, confirmed by Finance Minister Jun Azumi, came after the Japanese currency had surged to a post-World War II high of 75.32 yen against the dollar earlier Monday bad credit unsecured personal loans.

By 11:45 a.m., Tokyo time, the dollar has risen sharply to 79.19 yen.

The strong yen erodes overseas earnings for Japanese exporters.

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