Obama Focus to raise the job market

U.S.A: The President of US, Barack Obama on Friday searched for good news amid signs of a slowing jobs market and returned to a familiar theme. That his economic policies had set a weak economy on track, but that he was impatient for more improvement.

Mr. Obama's Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, took the moment to renew his claim he would be a better steward of the economy than the president. Under pressure from critics in his own party to talk more clearly about what he would do differently from the president, the likely GOP presidential nominee said he would pursue trade deals, push for more domestic energy production and lower taxes, among other steps to boost the economy.
The lackluster jobs data returned the nation's economic anxieties to the center of the presidential campaign after weeks that had focused largely on Mr. Obama's new immigration policy, which has proved popular in public opinion polls, and the Supreme Court ruling that upheld his health-care law.

The job numbers served as a reminder that Mr. Obama draws low marks from the public for his handling of the economy. On Friday, he tried to shift the focus to a larger economic snapshot. He noted that the 84,000 private-sector jobs created in June meant 4.4 million jobs had been created in the private sector over the past 28 months.

"That's a step in the right direction," Mr. Obama said while campaigning in Poland, Ohio. But he added, "we've got to grow the economy even faster and we've got to put even more people back to work." More than 8 million jobs were lost in the recent recession.

"There are no quick fixes to the problems we face that were more than a decade in the making," said Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. "Employment is growing, but it is not growing fast enough given the jobs deficit caused by the deep recession."

The jobs report arrived as Mr. Obama was on a two-day tour of Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he had cited the growth in manufacturing jobs as a bright spot and pointed to a U.S. auto manufacturing industry that had been revived with federal aid. Still, a series of disappointing jobs numbers make it difficult for Mr. Obama to tout economic progress, and on Friday he acknowledged, "it's tough out there."

Mr. Romney on Friday again pressed his argument that Mr. Obama's policies had failed.

"This kick in the gut has got to end," he said, interrupting his family vacation to speak to reporters at a hardware store in Wolfeboro, N.H. "The president's policies have not gotten America working again, and the president is going to have to stand up and take responsibility for it."

The former Massachusetts governor said the job-creation number doesn't tell the story of people who have dropped out of the workforce or of those former full-time workers now making do with part-time jobs.

Mr. Romney got a boost Friday from an outside group supporting his candidacy. Crossroads GPS, an arm of the super PAC established with the help of Karl Rove, announced plans to spend $25 million on television ads in nine swing states that will criticize Mr. Obama for failing to lower the unemployment rate.

Some Republican strategists said the latest unemployment figures would silence grumbling from conservatives that Mr. Romney needs to be more aggressive as a candidate.

"The lackluster jobs report trumps all of the recent whining from self-appointed campaign analysts," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist who ran former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole's presidential bid in 1996.

But even Mr. Romney seemed to acknowledge his critics as he brushed aside complaints that he needed to offer clearer policy prescriptions. "I put out 59 steps for how I would get the economy going," he told reporters.