The Nasdaq computer stock index was down by 2.27 percent, or 24.92 points, to 1495.70 in Friday afternoon trading. Stocks in general dropped Friday after the Department of Labor issued a report saying that U.S. companies added only 69,000 jobs to their payrolls in May. It was the smallest jobs gain in a year, and missed forecasts that called for almost 160,000 new jobs. What's more, the unemployment rate increased to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent, the government report estimated.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 216.72 points to 12,176.73, the Standard and Poor's 500 declined 26.37 to 1,283.94 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 64.66 to 2,762.88. The Nasdaq's decline, dropping by 2.27 percent, was the greatest drop in percentage terms.

Continued reports this week that Spain or Greece, under the burden of massive debt, might leave the Euro zone, have made prospects for continued economic recovery as uncertain as they have been over the past few years.

Tech companies across the board have been hit. IBM was down Friday afternoon by US$3.34 to $189.57; Cisco was down $0.28 to $16.05; Microsoft dropped $0.57 to $28.62; and even the mighty Apple was down $13.13 to $564.53. Facebook -- whose , the after-the-fact realization that the offering was overpriced, and allegations that the lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, may have committed infractions of financial rules by telling a small circle of people about a downward revision in revenue forecasts -- was down $1.75 to $27.84. Facebook shares are now well below the $45 hit on its IPO day.

Nasdaq computer stocks are now down more than 12 percent from their highs earlier in the quarter.