Biden: Jobless rate troubling but hopeful

WASHINGTON, June 5 (UPI) -- U.S. jobless figures for May were troublesome yet positive because the job-loss number was the lowest since September, Vice President Joe Biden said Friday.

Biden, meeting with Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer, said the latest figures were "another reminder of the challenges facing working families."

The Labor Department said 345,000 jobs were lost during May and the unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent, the highest jobless rate in almost 26 years.

However, the number of jobs lost was lower than the 500,000 analysts expected, the fourth straight month fewer jobs were lost than the previous month, Biden told reporters.

"It doesn't satisfy me. It doesn't satisfy the president. It doesn't satisfy our economic advisers," Biden said.

President Obama's administration doesn't measure success by "less bad," he said. "A lower job rate loss is not our goal. ... We will not be satisfied until we're adding jobs on a monthly basis."

Reviewing the 100-day progress of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Biden said reports of economic activity and job creation in all states and the jobless report showed "some signs that all this activity is having this desired impact," Biden said.

Biden said he and Obama would announce plans to ramp up Recovery Act implementation during the summer on Monday.

"But I want to make it clear -- and caution everyone -- there's certainly going to be more setbacks on the road before we get finally to recovery," Biden said. As much progress is already made, we still have a long, long way to go in the road to recovery."