US president Barack Obama has hailed a positive jobs report today but said more job growth is needed and predicted the situation will improve over time.
Commenting on a report that 117,000 jobs were created in July and the jobless rate ticked down slightly to 9.1%, Obama said, 'We've got to do better than that.
'We are going to get through this. Things will get better. And we're going to get there together.'
Obama, speaking to American veterans, said the US economy has faced a tumultuous year and noted markets around the globe have had a bumpy ride.
He cited divisive US debt talks, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, revolts in Arab countries and the European debt crisis as factors contributing to slack growth.
When the US Congress returns to work in September, Obama said he wants lawmakers to move quickly on job-creating steps such as extending a payroll tax cut.
To get job growth back on a solid footing 'no doubt will take some time,' Obama said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.54% to stand at 11,444.68 in closing trade after a roller-coaster day on the markets, ending the week with steep losses.
The broader S&P 500 shed 0.06% to 1,199.34, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.94% to 2,532.41 as markets digested a better-than-expected US jobs report and hints of progress in Europe's debt crisis.
Top policymakers at the US Federal Reserve will sift through the report when they meet on Tuesday but are not expected to announce any new measures to support the sputtering US recovery.
The Fed has cut interest rates to zero and spent $2.3 trillion on bonds, but officials have said they want to see how the economy fares before taking any further action.
All of the gains in US employment in July came from the private sector, where jobs rose 154,000 - an acceleration from June's 80,000 increase and more than the 115,000 expected by economists.
Government employment dropped 37,000 in July, a ninth straight month of job losses. The drop was mostly due to a government shutdown in Minnesota that left thousands of state workers without pay during the survey period.
Within the private sector, most of the job gains were concentrated in the services sector. Temporary help - an indicator of future permanent hiring - rebounded modestly after declining for three straight months.
Manufacturing jobs rose 24,000 after increasing 11,000 in June. Most the gains came from the car sector.
Construction employment increased 8,000 after dropping 5,000 in June.
Commenting on the figures, a top White House adviser said that it was encouraging that US job growth accelerated more than expected in July, but the country still had a long way to go to recovery.
'While the better than expected report is welcome news, the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn,' Council of Economic Advisers chairman Austan Goolsbee said in a statement released by the White House.
Earlier, in an interview on MSNBC, Goolsbee said the US economy 'took some heavy blows' in the first half of 2011 and stressed that while this morning's report was better than markets expected, 'we still have a long way to go.'
