Wall Street is having little luck finding a bottom to a long stock slide that’s wiped more than $11 trillion from portfolios and pensions.

Shares struggled yesterday to end their fourth straight trading week even on a mixed note.

Investors got spooked by the government’s official report that unemployment in February had jumped to 8.1 percent – a level not seen since 1983, when the Dow Jones industrial average was around 1,130.

Despite two rallies in the session, the Dow showed barely a half-percent gain to 6,626.94, up 32.50. The Standard & Poor’s 500 inched higher by about one-tenth of a percent to 683.38, up 0.83. Nasdaq fell 5.74 to 1,293.85, down less than a half-percent.

For the week, all three indexes fell between 6 percent and 7 percent.

The Dow and S&P are about 25 percent lower this year at the crucial start of spring. The Nasdaq is off nearly 18 percent. Since the recession began more than a year ago, stocks have lost 55 percent of their value.

“The start of spring is supposed to be good for stocks, like the saying goes, ‘Sell in May and go away,’ ” said Peter Schiff, president of Euro-Pacific Capital. “But it isn’t going to happen again for a long time.”

Analysts were mixed on how low the Dow might tumble before hitting bottom to bounce back for the longer term.

Schiff thinks the Dow could bounce around over the course of several volatile rallies and dip as low as 4,000 before the economy stages a full-fledged comeback.

“The bear market isn’t over because the economic crisis is only in its first stages – and that’s just from the early moves of the Bush administration and Alan Greenspan. We’re still waiting to see the impacts hit from President Obama’s attempts,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Labor Department report yesterday also adjusted December’s payroll losses to 681,000, the most since October 1949.

February’s dismal job cuts of 651,000 could also be adjusted higher as well, said economist Nigel Gault at Global Insight.

Also depressing stocks are dwindling dividend payouts, which could drop 20 percent among firms on the S&P 500.

Meanwhile, Treasury bonds fell amid fears of an oversupply of debt offerings from Uncle Sam.

The dollar weakened, helping push crude up 4.4 percent to a five-week high of $45.52 a barrel, up $1.91. Wholesale gasoline rose 1.5 percent to $1.3322 a gallon.

Most financial stocks slumped. JPMorgan dropped 67 cents, or 4 percent, to $15.93, Bank of America slipped 3 cents to $3.14, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. fell $6.07, or 7.4 percent, to $75.65 and Morgan Stanley fell 80 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $17.18.

Among the stock winners, GE jumped 6 percent to $7.06, up 40 cents, reversing a five-day retreat after the company said it would buy back $1.45 billion of debt. paul.tharp@nypost.com