US economy still facing challenges- Obama

[emezico]

President Barack Obama says the U.S. economy is still facing challenges and it is going to take more time to mend the wounds inflicted by the recession.

Obama spoke at a Chrysler plant in Ohio against the backdrop of a dismal jobs report released Friday that shows the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.1 percent. Obama did not specifically mention the new numbers during his remarks.

The president did say that the economy is still facing "headwinds," including high gas prices, economic disruptions following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and instability in the Middle East.

The new economic numbers show that employers in May added the fewest jobs in eight months.

President Barack Obama sought Friday to draw attention to the auto industry's rebound with a visit to a Chrysler plant in politically important Ohio, even as a dismal new jobs report clouded his upbeat economic message.

Obama's stop in Toledo was the latest in a string of domestic trips to promote his jobs agenda and defend the much maligned government bailouts to Chrysler and General Motors. The president planned to speak to plant workers and local business owners about the significance of the industry's turnaround.

The trip came on the same day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a significant drop in hiring for May — only 54,000 new jobs — and an uptick in unemployment to 9.1 percent. As the Republican presidential field begins to take shape, the White House is keenly aware that Obama's handling of the economy generates some of his highest public disapproval ratings.


Source: Yahoo