President Barack Obama makes a statement on the monthly jobs report, Friday, July 8, 2011, in the Rose Garden of the White House. The low numbers threaten his 2012 re-election campaign.
WASHINGTON - President Obama scrambled yesterday in the wake of another disastrous jobs report to reverse America's economic slump - and salvage his 2012 prospects.
Numbers as anemic as yesterday's - only 18,000 private sector jobs created in June - caused the unemployment rate to rise to a politically unpalatable 9.2%. Despite a recovering stock market and 2 million jobs created on Obama's watch, the new jobs number was the lowest in nine months - dealing Obama's "momentum theory" an embarrassing blow.
"Today's job report confirms what most Americans already know: We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to give people the security and opportunity that they deserve," Obama said in brief remarks in the White House Rose Garden. "Our economy as a whole just isn't producing nearly enough jobs for everybody who's looking.
"We've always known that we'd have ups and downs on our way back from this recession."
He noted the jobs market has faced "some tough headwinds," including soaring gas prices, natural disasters like fires and floods, the Greek financial crisis and state and local budget cuts costing tens of thousands of public service workers their livelihoods.
Nervous White House political strategists privately agree with their Republican critics - Obama is running out of time to get the economy humming to avoid becoming a one-term President.
Even Democratic optimists recognize Obama will defy history if he's reelected with this struggling economy.
No incumbent President since Franklin D. Roosevelt has ever won another term with unemployment higher than 7.2% - and Obama's economic gurus believe the jobless figure will remain north of 8% by Election Day next year.
Republicans pounced on Obama yesterday, claiming ordinary Americans have been turned off by his assertion last month that poor monthly job numbers are "bumps on the road to recovery."
"It's like nails on a chalkboard to them," GOP strategist Ed Gillespie said of Obama's rhetoric.
White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged the June numbers were "disappointing," but added they underscore "the urgency of the moment" as Obama and congressional leaders try to hammer out a budget deal.
Obama and the eight bipartisan leaders meet at the White House again tomorrow for high-stakes negotiations.
tdefrank@nydailynews.com
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