NEW YORK, USA - Wall Street fell hard Thursday after a government report highlighted a weak labor market that could hinder prospects for recovery from the brutal recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 217.35 points (2.56 percent) to 8,286.71 at the close after trading was extended by 15 minutes to cope with what the New York Stock Exchange called 'system irregularities.'

The Nasdaq fell 49.20 points (2.67 percent) to 1,796.52 and the Standard & Poor's 500 broad market index tumbled 26.22 points (2.84 percent) to a provisional close of 897.11.

The market opened on a sour note ahead of a long weekend after the Labor Department reported that US employers shed 467,000 jobs in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a fresh 26-year high of 9.5 percent.

Analysts had expected a smaller number of 365,000 job losses, but a higher unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. The jobless rate in May was 9.4 percent.

'The June payroll report presents lousy economic news in virtually every respect,' said Patrick O' hare of Briefing.com.

'It is so bad that it could undermine hopes that an economic rebound is not too far away simply because other economic series have showed a slowing rate of decline,' he said.

The report 'caused traders some alarm and led to creeping doubts as to whether a rapid recovery in the economy is still possible,' analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a note to clients.