WASHINGTON The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since late 1983, as a wide range of employers eliminated a net total of 663,000 jobs.

The Labor Department's report this morning is fresh evidence of the toll the recession has inflicted on America's workers and companies.

The latest tally of job losses was slightly higher than the 654,000 that economists expected. The rise in the unemployment rate matched expectations.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 5.1 million jobs, with almost two-thirds of the losses occurring in the last five months.

The number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million in March. In addition, the number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. That's people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or were unable to find full-time work.

If part-time and discouraged workers are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 15.6 percent in March, the highest on records dating to 1994.