White House adviser minimizes bad jobs report

[June 06, 2011]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top White House economic adviser says the upward tilt over the past six months in new jobs is a better indicator of the nation's employment picture than a gloomy report Friday that warned of slow growth ahead.

Austan Goolsbee, who heads the president's Council of Economic Advisers, says the addition of a million new jobs over the past six months shows "we have improved a long way from when the economy was in rescue mode."

Employers added 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest in eight months, and Friday's report showed that the unemployment rate had inched up to 9.1 percent.

Goolsbee tells ABC's "This Week" that the jobs report indicates the economy was "somewhat slowed," but he insists the numbers are "highly variable."

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.