SALON

Friday, Jul 6, 2012 1:00 PM UTC

Obama’s bad jobs day

The new jobs report showing the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June will blunt Obama's recent momentum

By

Topics: U.S. Economy, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney,

Obama's bad jobs dayPresident Barack Obama speaks at an ice cream social at Washington Park in Sandusky Ohio, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Obama is on a two-day bus trip through Ohio and Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)(Credit: AP)

The economy created just 80,000 jobs last month, leaving the unemployment rate unchanged at 8.2 percent and making June the third straight month to disappoint in job creation as experts fear the U.S. and global economies are slowing. American employers added just 75,000 jobs per month on average since April, compared to 226,000 per month during the first quarter of the year. And this year’s pace is already trailing 2011′s.

Today’s number, while in positive territory, is deeply disappointing because it is not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone begin to close the jobs gap. The Brookings Institution estimated last year that to close the jobs gap by 2020, we would need to be creating 208,000 jobs per month. Today’s report suggests the economy will be struggling for many years to come.

The report will also abruptly bring to a halt several weeks of good press for President Obama, which included his immigration policy change and the Supreme Court’s affirmation of his healthcare law. But the economy remains the most important issue on voters’ minds, and this middling report will no doubt dominate the media narrative for the next few days. Meanwhile, presumed GOP nominee Mitt Romney gets a much-needed distraction from talking about healthcare and immigration, two topics on which he is extremely uncomfortable and has almost nothing to say. Slamming Obama on the economy is Romney’s sweet spot.

But when Romney inevitably does hit Obama today, he’ll know where the president is coming from. During a press conference from 2006, Romney, then the governor of Massachusetts, spun bad job numbers by blaming the weak economy he inherited. He now attacks Obama for doing the same.

Alex Seitz-Wald

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald. More Alex Seitz-Wald.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations