NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are falling sharply on Wall Street after the U.S. government reported that only 80,000 jobs were created in June, the third straight month of weak hiring.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 170 points to 12,726 just before noon on Friday. The loss wiped out the Dow's gain for the week.
The Standard & Poor's 500 slid 16 points to 1,351 and Nasdaq composite fell 45 points to 2,930.
The unwillingness of U.S. employers to add jobs quickly shows that the economy is still struggling three years after the recession officially ended. An average of just 75,000 jobs were created every month in the April-June quarter, far below the 226,000 created every month in the first three months of the year.