Filed by KOSU News in Business.
July 8, 2011

The nation’s unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent in June from 9.1 percent the month before as businesses and government agencies added only 18,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.

Both figures are well below the already modest pre-report forecasts from economists.

We’ll add more details from the report shortly.

President Obama is scheduled to make a statement about the news at 10:35 a.m. ET, the White House says.

Update at 8:53 a.m. ET. Boehner Asks “Where Are The Jobs?”

On House Speaker John Boehner’s official Twitter page, the Ohio Republican has posted these reactions:

– “The June unemployment report has Americans asking once again: where are the jobs?”

– “We need serious reforms that restrain future spending & spending cuts that exceed any debt limit hike #4jobs – not tax hikes.”

Update at 8:50 a.m. ET. Two Years After Official End Of Recession, “Painfully Slow” Recovery:

The Associated Press notes that “two years after the [latest] recession officially ended, companies are adding fewer workers despite record cash stockpiles and healthy profit margins.”

And the wire service adds that “the economy typically needs to add 125,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. And at least twice that many jobs are needed to bring down the unemployment rate.”

Update at 8:45 a.m. ET. Previous Months’ Growth Revised Down:

“The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised from +232,000 to +217,000,” BLS reports, “and the change for May was revised from +54,000 to +25,000.”

Update at 8:40 a.m. ET. More Details:

– The number of Americans classified as unemployed rose to 14.1 million from 13.9 million in May.

– Private employers added 57,000 jobs to their payrolls. A decline of 39,000 at government agencies pulled the overall figure down to +18,000. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]