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Summary Payrolls were unchanged, the weakest reading since September 2010, the Labor Department said.
Job growth in the US unexpectedly stagnated in August, adding to pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S Bernanke and President Barack Obama to rouse an economy that’s at risk of stalling two years after the last recession ended.Payrolls were unchanged, the weakest reading since September 2010, the Labor Department said in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain of 68,000. The jobless rate held at 9.1 percent.“It’s a very, very difficult labor market,” said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We have an economy that’s just muddling through.”The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 2.5 percent to close at 1,173.97 in New York yesterday. Ten-year Treasury yields sank to 1.99 percent at 4:34 p.m. in New York from 2.13 percent late on Sept. 1. The dollar extended its longest rally since January.“We’re calling for a mild recession at this point,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas in New York. “We’ll see QE3 definitely,” she said, referring to a third round of large-scale asset purchases by the Fed. “It helps put a floor under the economy and stabilize things.”The report raised the political stakes for Obama as he prepares to address a joint session of Congress next week. An unemployment rate stuck above 9 percent has helped push Obama’s disapproval rating to an all-time high, according to a Quinnipiac University Aug. 16-27 poll of 2,730 registered voters. Some 52 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance, up from 46 percent in July.
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