The economy failed to add any new jobs for the month of August—the first time since 1945 that the U.S. government has reported a net job change of zero.
The silence was deafening from President Barack Obama Friday morning as he left for a long Labor Day weekend at Camp David.
He had no comment on the dismal job report, but is expected to reveal a plan this week.
While the unemployment rate stayed the same at 9.1 percent, not one new job was added to help mend the unemployment problem.
“The president will come forward with specific proposals, that by any objective measure would add to growth and job creation in the short term,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
The blame game and partisan sniping over the latest jobs report is in full gear.
“The only plans offered by Republicans have not only failed to create jobs, they actually have destroyed them,” said House Minority Leader Eric Cantor.
A spokesman for Speaker of the House John Boehner charged back saying, “Washington Democrats’ agenda of tax hikes, more government ‘stimulus’ spending and increased regulations … are all making it harder to create more American jobs.”
“The president has got to come up with a bold jobs plan,” explained former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. “If Republicans don’t go along with it, he’s got to fight for it. If they still continue to object, he’s got to run his election on the basis of this plan.”
With a toxic atmosphere ruining any hopes of the president’s job plan going anywhere on Capitol Hill, it appears that no substantial legislation will pass through Congress anytime soon.
That leaves Obama and his 2012 presidential rivals in a war of words, and voters struggling to make ends meet.
“I want the economy to be taken care of,” one person said. “I don’t think that’s being worked on right now … you get people to work. The economy will take care of itself.”
Some economists are blaming sluggish demand for goods and services and uncertainty over the economy’s future for the lack of job growth.
The grim Labor Department report is raising concerns that the U.S. might slip back into a recession.
