NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks slid Friday after disappointing government data on the troubled labor market reignited investor concerns about the pace of economic recovery.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 22.98 points (0.22 percent) to 10,583.88 in the first five minutes of trade.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite slipped 2.04 points (0.09 percent) to 2,298.01 and the broad-market Standard Poor's 500 index fell 3.01 points (0.26 percent) to 1,138.68.

The Labor Department reported the US economy lost 85,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate held at 10.0 percent.

The payrolls number was much worse than the unchanged reading anticipated by most analysts, while the jobless rate was in line with consensus expectations.

"Job losses seen over the last two years now total 7.2 million. The market reacted instantly to the news," said Fred Dickson at DA Davidson Co.

"Our reaction is that the economic recovery remains very fragile, as employers still are not hiring."