Obama trumpets signs of improvement

While many economists predicted, and White House officials feared, that the jobless rate would top 10 percent for July, the national rate declined slightly to 9.4 percent last month from the 26-year high of 9.5 percent in June - the first decrease since April 2008. The Labor Department reported that employers cut 247,000 jobs, the fewest in a year.

“Today, we’re pointed in the right direction,’’ Obama said in brief remarks in the Rose Garden hours after the unemployment report. “While we’ve rescued our economy from catastrophe, we’ve also begun to build a new foundation for growth.’’

He asserted that job losses are at half the rate when he took office in the worst recession since the Great Depression and noted that a week ago, the government reported that the economy shrank by just 1 percent in the second quarter, also better than forecast.

Still, there were 14.5 million Americans out of work in July, and if those who have given up looking for a job or who have been forced to take part-time work are counted, the rate was 16.3 percent in July. The White House said that the president still expects unemployment to hit 10 percent sometime later this year.

“As far as I’m concerned, we will not have a true recovery until we stop losing jobs,’’ Obama said, vowing not to rest until “every American that is looking for a job can find one.’’

As the unemployment rate rose steadily and stubbornly month after month, Obama’s job approval ratings and Americans’ confidence in his handling of the economy have dropped. The opposite can be expected to happen if the jobless numbers keep declining.

Yesterday, the president used the new jobs figures not only to continue his defense of the already passed $787 billion stimulus package but also to press for sweeping policy changes on healthcare, education, and energy that he seeks.

“We can’t afford to return an economy based on inflated returns and maxed-out credit cards,’’ he added. “It won’t be easy. . . . We have a steep mountain to climb and we started in a very deep valley.’’

Representative George Miller of California and Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the Democrats who lead the House and Senate labor committees, respectively, said that the numbers showed that Obama’s economic recovery plan is working and saving jobs.

But they said that Congress should consider extending unemployment insurance when it returns to work next month. “More than 5 million Americans have been looking for work for more than six months, without success,’’ they said in a joint statement. “We must do more to help these working families keep food on their tables and hope in their hearts’’

Republicans, however, didn’t see much encouragement in the jobs report, noting that the White House had once predicted that the stimulus plan would prevent unemployment from breaching 8 percent, and continued their criticism of Obama and Democrats for their economic policies.

“While President Obama was taking a victory lap to celebrate the economy’s performance, more Americans lost their jobs and the budget deficit soared to a record $1.3 trillion in July,’’ Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said in a statement.