(Reuters) - Shares in European lenders tumbled in early trading on Monday as investor fears mounted over the possibility that the United States could be heading for recession, after surprisingly weak employment data on Friday.

The region-wide banking index shed some 4.4%, hitting its lowest since March.

Shares of Italy's UniCredit, Intesa and Germany's Deutsche Bank were all down around 6%. Barclays dropped 5.4%, while Spain's Sabadell was down 4.9%.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Samuel Indyk; Editing by Amanda Cooper)