* FTSEurofirst 300 closes 1.9 percent lower
* Index falls for third day, loses 2.1 percent over the week
* Banks take most points off index
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - European shares ended at a four-week closing low on Friday after U.S. jobless numbers for September were higher than forecast, casting doubt on the strength of economic recovery.
The FTSEurofirst 300 fell 1.9 percent to 963.56 points, the lowest close since Sept. 4. Over the week, the index fell 2.1 percent.
But on Wednesday, the index posted its best quarterly gain in nearly 10 years, and is still up more than 49 percent from the lifetime low it hit on March 9.
"This is not the turning point. It's not a break in the primary trend that's been established since March," said Mike Lenhoff, strategist at Brewin Dolphin.
"We've all been expecting bouts of profit taking and I think that's all it is. The economy can only deliver so much at any one time. Maybe the employment expectations were a bit too rich."
Every sector of the DJ Stoxx 600 was in the red, but banks, which have rallied more than 150 percent since March, were among the top losers on concerns over the growth picture.
BNP Paribas, Banco Santander, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Societe Generale, UBS and UniCredit fell between 1.7 percent and 9 percent.
U.S. employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday. The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the highest since June 1983 and payrolls had now dropped for 21 consecutive months.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 180,000 in September.
Other data cast further doubts on the economic recovery. New orders received by U.S. factories posted their first drop in five months in August, government data showed, going against Wall Street expectations that they would rise.
At the time European bourses were closing, the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were down 0.2-0.4 percent.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 closed 1.2 percent lower, Germany's DAX fell 1.6 percent, and France's CAC 40 shed 1.9 percent.
OILS SUFFER
Oil shares suffered as crude prices fell 2.7 percent to less than $69 a barrel.
Total, BP, Repsol and StatoilHydro fell 1.1-1.5 percent.
Miners also fell, as the price of copper and other metals slipped. BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Lonmin, Xstrata, Vedanta Resources and closed between 1 percent and 3.6 percent lower.
Among individual shares, Carlsberg fell 8 percent after Deutsche Bank downgraded the brewer to 'sell'.
Rival brewing giant SABMilller was one of a small number of gainers, rising 2.4 percent, after positive comment from Cazenove. The broker repeated its 'outperform' rating on SABMiller and marginally upgraded EPS forecasts.
Munich Re gained 0.5 percent after receiving a boost from two broker price target upgrades.
British insurer Legal & General lost 3.1 percent, following five day of gains fuelled by bid speculation.
European credit derivatives indexes widened further after the U.S. jobs data.
The investment-grade Markit iTraxx Europe index was at 100.75 basis points, according to data from Markit, 2.25 basis points wider than before the data report and 7.75 basis points more than late Thursday. (Additional reporting by Dominin Lau; Editing by Dan Lalor)