Treasuries climb as markets drop on US job figures

Growth in US employment slowed down significantly last month, adding to fears the economic recovery is faltering.

According to the figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payroll employment was up 54,000 in May, following gains which averaged 220,000 in the previous three months. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate went up slightly from 9% to 9.1%. Ahead of the release, a survey of economists by Reuters had suggested payrolls would have increased by 150,000 last month. The BLS said job gains in May occurred in professional and business services, health care and mining, while local government continued to shed jobs. The Dow Jones was down 1.01% at 12,125 following the release of th...