It was a bad July for job seekers, as U.S. employers only added 163,000 jobs to the market, according to the Labor Department.
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The department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June.
According to the Associated Press, July’s hiring was the best since February, even though the economy has added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year, roughly the same as last year’s pace. But that’s not enough to satisfy the 12.8 million Americans who are unemployed.
As reported by the AP:
The job gains were broad-based. Manufacturing added 25,000 jobs, the most since March. Restaurants and bars added 29,000. Retailers hired 7,000 more workers. Education and health services gained 38,000. Governments cut 9,000 positions.
Average hourly wages also increased by 2 cents. Over the past year wages have increased 1.7 percent – matching the rate of inflation.
As for the effect the job numbers will have on the election, job creation is the only thing that can boost President Barack Obama’s re-election hopes come this November.
As for Mitt Romney, he pounced after hearing the jobs report, saying that the tenth-of-a-point increase in the U.S. unemployment rate is a ‘hammer blow’ to middle-class families.
Romney says Americans deserve better than an unemployment rate that has been above 8 percent for more than three years, contending that President Obama doesn’t have a plan to boost economic growth.
Romney says his economic plan would create 12 million new jobs by the end of his term in office.
Still, the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent since Obama’s first month in office – the longest stretch on record. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment over 8 percent.
SOURCE: AP
