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A terrible jobs report blasted Wall Street ahead of the holiday weekend, with not a single Dow stock able to boast a gain.

The blue chip index tumbled 223 points to 8,280, its lowest close since 22 May, while the tech loaded Nasdaq sank 49 to 1,796. The broader S&P 500 fell 26, or almost 3%, to 896.

US markets are closed tomorrow for the July 4 Independence Day celebrations.

Another 467,000 people joined the queue for work last month, far more than the 365,000 predicted. More than 6m American jobs have now been lost since the recession began, but the latest figure was the first month-on-month drop in four months.

The unemployment rate rose for the ninth month in a row to 9.5%, pretty much matching expectations. Many experts forecast a rise to 9.6% from May's 9.4%.

But the Labor Department did say initial jobless clams fell to 614,000 last week from 630,000 the week before, as expected.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said May factory orders rose 1.2% against forecasts for a rise of 0.9%. Factory orders rose a revised 0.5% in April.

Alcoa which kicks off the second quarter results season next week, was the worst performing Dow constituent, down 4.5%, with Caterpillar and Travelers not far behind.

The jobless data pushed recruitment company Monster Worldwide lower but medical equipment company Illumina is the one of the worst performers, suffering a double-digit percentage fall after second-quarter revenue came in at $161m, versus guidance of $168m.

Power generator Dynegy was sharply lower after UBS cut its rating on the stock from "neutral" to "sell".

Exelon has upped its hostile takeover offer for rival power generator NRG to $8bn versus the previous offer of $7bn.