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Boehner Asks Again: 'Where Are The Jobs?'

This morning's word that just 18,000 jobs were added to payrolls last month and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent from 9.1 percent in May has opened the door for more questions from Republicans about the effectiveness of Democratic President Obama's attempts to boost the economy.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) leads the way with this string of messages on his :

— "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."

-- "Need to enact GOP plan #4jobs (see it at ). A Balanced Budget Amendment will help, too."

The president is due to make a statement about the jobs report — which was much worse than economists expected — at 10:35 a.m. ET.

Update at 10:25 a.m. ET. White House Says "Headwinds" Slowed Job Growth:

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, just posted his analysis of the report. He writes, in part:

"While the private sector has added 2.2 million jobs over the past 16 months, this month's report reflects the recent slowdown of economic growth due to headwinds faced in the first half of this year.

"The unemployment rate remains unacceptably high and faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn. Today's report underscores the need for bipartisan action to help the private sector and the economy grow – such as measures to extend the payroll tax cut, pass the pending free trade agreements, and create an infrastructure bank to help put Americans back to work. It also underscores the need for a balanced approach to deficit reduction that instills confidence and allows us to live within our means without shortchanging future growth."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.