U.S. unemployment dips to 9.1 percent

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The unemployment rate for July headed in the right direction, but much more work needs to be done, U.S. President Obama said Friday.

"Today we know that our economy created 154,000 new private sector jobs in July. And that's the strongest pace since April," Obama said ahead of outlining a jobs initiative for military veterans. "The unemployment rate went down, not up."

The U.S. Labor Department said 117,000 jobs were added in July and the unemployment rate dropped from 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent. Private-sector companies hired 154,000 workers but governments at all levels reported job cutbacks, trimming the overall gain to 117,000 jobs.

Job gains in May and June were revised upward by a combined 56,000, the department said.

The biggest increases in July occurred in healthcare with 31,000 new jobs, retail 26,000 and manufacturing 24,000.

Average hourly wages rose 10 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $23.13, the Labor Department said.

"[While] this marks the 17th month in a row of job growth in the private sector, nearly 2.5 million new private sector jobs in all, we have to create more jobs than that each month to make up for the more than 8 million jobs that the recession claimed," Obama said, stressing later, "We are going to get through this."

Austan Goolsbee, outgoing chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said Friday's jobs figures were better than expected, but "the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn."

He said monthly employment and unemployment numbers remained volatile and estimates could be revised.

"Therefore," Goolsbee said, "as the administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report."