Slowdown worsens as Europe sinks, U.S. stutters By Jonathan Cable and Alex Richardson LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The world's major economies are faltering or shrinking, with Chinese factory output barely growing, powerful European manufacturing countries falling deeper into malaise and the U.S. stuttering, surveys showed on Friday. In Britain, manufacturing activity shrank at its fastest pace in three years last month as the global economic slowdown hit demand for its goods. <GB/PMIM> "It doesn't bode well for the second quarter," said Sian Fenner, global macroeconomist at Lloyds Banking Group. There is a lot of heightened uncertainty and risk in the market in the euro area, and this is playing on manufacturers' minds. It could start feeding through to sentiment in the United States, although at the moment the United States is holding up reasonably well, and there are worrying signs from China. Data on Friday, however, added to signs the U.S. recovery may also be faltering, deepening a stock market sell-off this week due largely to growing panic over the euro zone's debt crisis. U.S. employers added just 69,000 jobs in May - half as many as expected and the least in a year - while figures for the previous two months were also revised down. That will add to President Barack Obama's headaches and strengthen the case for another round of stimulus from the Federal Reserve. Equities, the euro, sterling and growth-linked currencies all fell after the gloomy data, although most then showed some signs of recovery as traders began to shut up shop for the weekend. Markit's Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 45.1 in May from 45.9 in April, slightly above a preliminary reading but marking its lowest level since June 2009. <EUR/PMIM> It has been below the 50 mark that divides growth from contraction for 10 months. Similarly the output index fell to 44.6 from April's 46.1, also the lowest since June 2009. Earlier data from France and Germany, Europe's largest economy, showed their manufacturing sectors contracted at the fastest pace in nearly three years. It was only German strength that prevented the euro zone falling into recession in the first quarter. Italy's factories contracted for the tenth straight month while in Spain the PMI fell below that of Greece's, and posted the lowest reading of all the countries surveyed. The news in Britain, linked inexorably to the fortunes of the euro zone, was little better. The UK economy is mired in its second recession in two years and its PMI plunged to 45.9 last month, its lowest reading since May 2009 and the second-steepest fall in the survey's 20-year history. Analysts had expected a more modest dip to 49.8. The euro zone's economic deterioration prompted more than a third of economists polled by Reuters this week to say the ECB will cut interest rates from their record 1.0 percent low before the end of the year to boost growth. <ECB/INT> Fundamentals certainly justify a rate cut any time soon. However, the ECB might keep some powder dry at next week's meeting and wait for the outcome of the Greek elections - and future of the monetary union - to change its policy stance," said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge. Greece, which unleashed the financial maelstrom that has ravaged the bloc, is due for a crucial second election in three weeks that may determine whether it remains a member of the currency union. Recent Reuters polls of fund managers, economists, and money market traders have all suggested that the battered economy will still be a member of the 17-nation bloc come 2014. That could pile pressure on authorities to attempt further stimulus. The separate HSBC China manufacturing PMI, tracking smaller private sector firms, retreated to 48.4 from 49.3 in April - its seventh straight month below the 50-mark - with the employment sub-index falling to 48.1, its lowest level since March 2009. Reporting by Fiona Shaikh in London, Nick Edwards and Lucy Hornby in Beijing, Se Young Le and Choonsik Yoo in Seoul, Sumanta Dey in Bangalore, Chikako Mogi in Tokyo, Luke Pachymuthu in Singapore and Lucia Mutikani in Washington; Editing by Patrick Graham