President Obama faces an uphill battle in wooing voters concerned about the economy after Friday’s jobs report showed the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent.
The figure failed to meet the expectations of some economists who estimated June could’ve seen between 90,000 and 100,000 jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that growth in manufacturing slowed, but added 11,000 jobs. Professional and business services added 47,000 jobs and employment in healthcare continued in its upward trend adding 13,000 new jobs.
The grim jobs report is fueling GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose campaign is honed in on the efficiency – or lack thereof – of the president’s economic policies.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been one of President Obama’s harshest critics, routinely pouncing on monthly jobs reports that are anything less than stellar.
“Today’s report shows the private sector clearly isn’t ‘doing fine’ and that President Obama’s policies have failed,” Boehner said in a statement Friday. “The president needs to stop betting on his failed policies and start working with Republicans to remove government obstacles to job creation.”
Chairman of the Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger said in a statement that it was “critical that we continue the policies” put forth by the president .
“It is critical that we continue the policies that build an economy that works for the middle class and makes us stronger and more secure as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession,” Krueger said. ”There are no quick fixes to the problems we face that were more than a decade in the making.”
