LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - European shares hit a four-week closing low on Friday, after U.S. jobless numbers for September were higher than forecast, casting doubt on the strength of the economic recovery.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares fell 1.7 percent to a provisional close of 965.15 points, the lowest close since Sept. 4. Over the week, the index fell 1.9 percent.
But on Wednesday, it 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 and 9 percent.
U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fuelled fears the weak labour market could undermine economic recovery.
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. (Reporting by Brian Gorman)