Oil prices have gone down on concerns that the United States could fall back into recession and continuing anxiety about eurozone debt levels.

With fears about a slowdown in China also hitting sentiment, US light crude had fallen $2.40 a barrel to $84.05.

Brent crude was also lower, dropping $1.66 to $110.67 a barrel.

The drops come after data on Friday showed that the US economy added new jobs in August, a much worse reading than had been expected.

Analysts had predicted that the non-farm payroll figures from the Department of Labor would show about 70,000 new jobs had been created.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged in August at 9.1%.

In Europe, the main share indexes were down sharply as concerns continue about the high debt levels of eurozone countries, and how these cold impact on the wider economy.

Elsewhere, a report in China said that the country’s service sector grew in August at its slowest pace since records started.