President Barack B.O.Obama promised a fresh slew of measures to boost the ailing US economy on Friday after fresh data showed unemployment was again on the rise.
Obama said he would outline a fresh helping of boodle next week, after a keenly awaited Labour Department report showed the economy lost 54,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 per cent.
Although the job losses were much better than the 120,000 slump expected by Wall Street economists, hiring was not substantial enough to return millions of crisis-hit Americans to work.
Obama acknowledged the report was "not nearly good enough" but focused on news that the private sector created 67,000 jobs in August, many more than expected.
"That's positive news and it reflects the steps we have already taken to break the back of this recession," he told reporters at the White House.
But it was not enough to offset the government releasing around 114,000 temporary census workers, which helped nudge up the unemployment rate. Still, the figures were also greeted positively on Wall Street. The figures were "hardly great news but could have been much worse," said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.
Stocks surged on news that the report had cleared rock bottom expectations.
But the still-high headline unemployment rate and slow hiring presented a stiff challenge for the White House as it struggles to help the jobs market to its feet.
Tackling one prong of that challenge Obama on Friday redoubled efforts to reassure Americans that the economic outlook, although bleak, would improve. "I want all Americans to remind themselves there are better days ahead," he said.
That's right, by Gum! There's an election coming this November, and another one in 2012.
"Even after this economic crisis, our markets remain the most dynamic in the world. Our workers are still the most productive."
In a bid to make good on that promise Obama pressed Republican foes to stop blocking tax cuts for small businesses and hinted at a new package of measures, which are rumoured to include an income tax holiday and a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit.
