Markets stumbled and economists darkened their forecasts as a dismal jobs report underscored that the U.S. economy’s core remains battered two years after the officially declared end of the recession.

The major U.S. stock indices fell at the open Friday morning and continued falling, on the heels of a employment report that showed the jobless rate tick up to 9.2 percent in June as non-farm payrolls gained only 18,000 jobs. The Labor Department’s numbers fell far below economists’ predictions of about 100,000 new jobs and made the previous month’s disappointing report seem less like a fluke and more like a developing trend, delivering a sobering portrait of the nation’s economic health and dashing hopes for future strength.

‘Anybody doing business planning in the second half of the year — if you’re a retail firm, and you’re looking at back-to-school sales, or you have to order for Christmas — your orders are going to be much more modest,’ said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

‘You can always write off one month of disappointing unemployment numbers,’ he added. ‘To write off two is a very different story.’

Stocks plunged after the employment numbers showed the weakest job growth since September. The Dow Jones Industrial […]