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The U.S. employment picture went from bad to ugly last month as employers added almost no new net jobs and the unemployment rate edged up for the third straight month, to 9.2%.

The report Friday from the Labor Department is sure to be a huge disappointment and will raise fresh questions about the sustainability of the recovery, now technically starting its third year.

Analysts had raised their job-growth forecasts for June to 100,000 or more in recent days, hopeful of a rebound after surprisingly few job gains in May, which many attributed to temporary factors such as Japan's earthquake and the spike in oil prices.

But, in fact, the growth of 54,000 jobs previously reported for May was revised down Friday to just 25,000. And the nation's payrolls followed that with a barely perceptible 18,000 new net jobs last month.

From February to April, employers have added an average of 215,000 jobs per month.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, ticked up to 9.2 from 9.1% in the previous month and this year’s low of 8.8% in March. Many thousands of people in June dropped out of the labor force, some presumably because of the discouraging outlook.

Friday’s jobs report was remarkable in that there was nothing positive in it. Manufacturing, instead of bouncing back up as many had expected, added a meager 6,000 jobs. Hiring in construction remained dismal. The once-fast-growing temporary-help industry shed jobs for the third month in a row. And budget-strapped government offices eliminated an additional 39,000 jobs from their payrolls. Services remained weak.

Even for those with jobs in June, there was bad news. The average weekly work hours declined by 0.1 to 34.3. And the average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees dropped by one cent to $22.99.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann came out with the first reaction to the bleak jobs statistics, saying, "Today's unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama's economic policies.

“The president promised if we passed the massive stimulus package, that unemployment wouldn't go above 8 percent. We are now at 9.2 percent. Unfortunately, millions of Americans are suffering today as a result of the president's broken promise and his policy of attempting to create jobs through massive government spending that has added over 35 percent to our national debt.”

Bachmann noted the talk that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may leave office before Obama’s first term ends. "We can only hope that the president will be right behind him after the next election,” she said.

What is responsible for the weak jobs market, Obama might ask. “Your administration's threat of higher taxes, massive government spending, and overregulation are," Bachmann answers.

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney puts the blame on Obama, too. "Today's abysmal jobs report confirms what we all know — that President Obama has failed to get this economy moving again,” the former Massachusetts governor said in a statement.

“Just this week, President Obama's closest White House adviser [David Plouffe] said that unemployment rates or even monthly jobs numbers do not matter to the average American.
If David Plouffe were working for me, I would fire him — and then he could experience firsthand the pain of unemployment."

Plouffe’s remarks represent a slap in the face to the 20 million-plus Americans out of work, underemployed, or who have ceased looking for jobs, Romney said. Indeed, including those unfortunate folks,  the “real” unemployment rate stands at 16.2 percent.

It wasn’t just presidential candidates expressing their outrage over the weak jobs data. The reaction of Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner: “Yikes,” Buck wrote on his Twitter account.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor related the jobs news to negotiations over a debt ceiling increase. “These numbers serve as a warning that as we address the debt limit increase we shouldn’t do so in a way that raises taxes and impedes the ability of small businesses to create jobs and get people back to work,” he said.


Boehner agrees. "Where are the jobs?" he asked at a news conference today after the report.
"Tax hikes on families and job creators will only make things worse."

Indeed, Democrats’ insistence on tax increases torpedoed the debt talks that Vice President Joe Biden led for weeks, Cantor said.

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Bachmann is an idiot and Boehner knows better.  First, the president cant wave a magic wand and change anything.  More over, I'd expect the brinkmanship in congress about the debt ceiling is probably discouraging any form of investment in American industry.  Who wants to throw money in when its plausible that things are about to get much, much worse?

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
Bachmann is an idiot and Boehner knows better.  First, the president cant wave a magic wand and change anything.  More over, I'd expect the brinkmanship in congress about the debt ceiling is probably discouraging any form of investment in American industry.  Who wants to throw money in when its plausible that things are about to get much, much worse?

every single policy this president has enacted has discouraged economic growth. how long does he get a pass? how long is it all bush's fault? for christ sake, he's been in office for 3 years, and has had no policy for growth, no policy on energy, he's an abysmal failure!

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this economy is down 2.5 million jobs since obama took office. he is anti-business and pro-government. and you wonder why this economy has been floundering? yet he and the democrats are still insistent on MORE taxes, as if that will encourage an increase in hiring and economic activity. of course the current debt ceiling debate is taking a toll, but there's no question that the federal government needs to shed trillions of dollars from its budget. even the democrats have come around to that reality, yet as it's engrained in their DNA, they are insistent on tax hikes. you can raise taxes in a growing economy, but not in an economy that's struggling as much as ours.

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what do you think about this interaction?

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Well, if Bachman is an idiot, then just about everyone else is too.  The economy really is horrible.  Prices have skyrocketed.  Unemployment is awful (and that doesnt even count the folks that have given up).  It was about 14% unemployment in my state last time I checked.

Even Dems have trouble excusing this economy.  They've admitted they cant blame it on Bush anymore, so this is all on Obama now.  He wont be able to run on his record in 2012, so look for the name bashing and mud-slinging to fly.  Its all he can do.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
Bachmann is an idiot

it's also very interesting to me that you would single out bachmann as an idiot. i can understand if the left doesn't like sarah palin. that's just one person. but i'm also noticing the same kind of attitude in regards to michelle bachmann. then it becomes a trend. and it makes me wonder why liberals, who are supposedly pro-feminism, are so quick to dismiss conservative women as dumb or unintelligent.

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I called her an idiot because of statements like

Originally Posted by Michelle Bachmann:

Today's unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama's economic policies.

Despite the fact that the recent regression in job numbers is much more likely the result of lack of confidence in the US economy due to congressional brinkmanship over the debt limit, which has nothing to do with the president and a bit to do with the Republicans (and democratic legislatures).

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
I called her an idiot because of statements like

Originally Posted by Michelle Bachmann:

Today's unemployment report is another stark reminder of the failure of President Obama's economic policies.

Despite the fact that the recent regression in job numbers is much more likely the result of lack of confidence in the US economy due to congressional brinkmanship over the debt limit, which has nothing to do with the president and a bit to do with the Republicans (and democratic legislatures).

While I somewhat agree with you in saying "Bachmann is an idiot" for the reasoning that you are using, I have to wonder just what you think of Obama. Seems to me that all he does is blame the other guys for everything. Don't you think he sounds and acts like a little brat on the playground???

Anyway, this isn't Obama's fault. I blame GWB's last Congress/Obama's first Congress. These are the same people who openly stated that they would not do anything GWB wanted even if it was a good idea. These are the same people who said certain parties were fear mongering when they warned us of the impending housing crisis. These are the same people who said "We have to pass the bill before we can read the bill". These are the people who seem to think that we can borrow our way out of debt. They are the ones who demonized the Tea Party, and the spending cuts they wanted, when it was obvious the Tea Party and those cuts is what US citizens wanted.

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and obama was a part of bush's last congress, and complicit with his own first congress. how can everything be blamed on one president, but then when the next president is in office we get the old, "well the president can't pass bills by himself, and doesn't have the power to do this or that, the only thing he can do is play golf and fundraise" defense?

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
and obama was a part of bush's last congress, and complicit with his own first congress. how can everything be blamed on one president, but then when the next president is in office we get the old, "well the president can't pass bills by himself, and doesn't have the power to do this or that, the only thing he can do is play golf and fundraise" defense?

When did   I blame anything on the last President?

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
and obama was a part of bush's last congress, and complicit with his own first congress. how can everything be blamed on one president, but then when the next president is in office we get the old, "well the president can't pass bills by himself, and doesn't have the power to do this or that, the only thing he can do is play golf and fundraise" defense?

When did   I blame anything on the last President?

so you don't blame bush for anything?

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Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
and obama was a part of bush's last congress, and complicit with his own first congress. how can everything be blamed on one president, but then when the next president is in office we get the old, "well the president can't pass bills by himself, and doesn't have the power to do this or that, the only thing he can do is play golf and fundraise" defense?

When did   I blame anything on the last President?

so you don't blame bush for anything?

I try not to blame Bush for those things he was not responsible for.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:

Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:

Originally Posted by Dødherre Mørktre:
and obama was a part of bush's last congress, and complicit with his own first congress. how can everything be blamed on one president, but then when the next president is in office we get the old, "well the president can't pass bills by himself, and doesn't have the power to do this or that, the only thing he can do is play golf and fundraise" defense?

When did   I blame anything on the last President?

so you don't blame bush for anything?

I try not to blame Bush for those things he was not responsible for.

oooookay....that's a little vague.

anyway, you aside, this is a common attitude i've seen coming from the left. oh, it's not obama's fault, he inherited this mess, and he can't do all this by himself. meanwhile, bush is responsible for the wars in afghanistan and iraq (despite congressional approval) and solely responsible for the economic meltdown (despite people like barney frank and chris dodd, and those that facilitated the housing meltdown) and pretty much everything else under the sun.