U.S. stock indexes fell sharply Friday after the government reported that the American economy added no new jobs in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.2 percent to close at 11,240. The S&P 500 was down 2.5 percent to end at 1,174 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 2.6 percent to 2,480.

European stocks were lower as well.

London's Financial Times index fell 2.3 percent to end at 5,292. The CAC-40 in Paris lost 3.6 percent to finish at 3,149. The DAX index in Frankfurt finished down 3.4 percent to close at 5,538.

Earlier, in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index lost 1.2 percent to finish at 8,951.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 1.8 percent to finish the day's trading at 20,213.

Gold settled at $1,873.70 per ounce, up from $1,826 on Thursday.

The dollar was higher against the euro, but lower against the yen.