Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-Obama blames Europe, energy prices for slow U.S. job growth

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UPDATE 1-Obama blames Europe, energy prices for slow U.S. job growth Jun 1st 2012, 18:10 Fri Jun 1, 2012 2:10pm EDT By Alister Bull GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn., June 1 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the U.S. economy was still fighting its way back to full health and was not yet growing or creating jobs fast enough, blaming high gasoline prices and headwinds from Europe's economic crisis for the lag. "The economy is growing again but it's not growing as fast as we want it to grow. Our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but as we learned in today's job report, we are still not creating them as fast as we want," he told several hundred workers and supporters at a Honeywell factory in Minnesota. According to the government's latest employment snapshot, the U.S. jobless rate ticked up to 8.2 percent in May from 8.1 percent in April. Obama, a Democrat running for re-election on Nov. 6, said external factors were largely at fault. "Just like at this time last year, our economy is still facing some serious headwinds," the president said, saying gas prices were "hitting peoples' wallets pretty hard" despite falling from their peaks and describing euro zone troubles as "starting to cast a shadow" over the United States. "We've got a lot of work to do before we get to where we need to be," he said. The increase in the jobless rate, coupled with a steady diet of troubling news out of Europe, sent U.S. stocks down. In his speech, Obama also repeated his call for Republicans in Congress to enact his so-called "to do list" of legislative steps that could lift hiring and spur growth this election year. Obama carried Minnesota by a solid 10 percent in 2008 and is leading his Republican rival Mitt Romney by a similar margin so far, according to several recent state polls. Republicans, seeking to remind voters about the swelling federal deficit under the Democratic president's watch, issued a note highlighting statements by Honeywell chief executive David Cote criticizing the rising national U.S. debt. Later on Friday, Obama will attend a series of fundraisers in Minnesota then travel to Chicago for more campaign events. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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