US jobs growth remains weak The US economy added 80,000 jobs in June, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 per cent, dashing hopes that the US labour market might be improving after the slump of the last few months. The lacklustre pace of job creation, which was virtually the same as it was in May, deals a blow to the Obama administration and the president's re-election campaign, given his vulnerability to attacks on the weak economy from Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger. Some economists had been hoping for a better reading on payroll formation last month, possibly in excess of 100,000 new positions, but Friday's labour department data confirms that the US economy remains firmly in the midst of a significant slowdown - although still reasonably safe from a double-dip recession. The sluggish but steady data on payrolls may not be sufficient to push officials at the Federal Reserve towards a new round of quantitative monetary easing, known as QE3. US stocks opened lower following the report, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite all down less than 1 per cent. US bond prices rose and the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries fell 3 basis points to 1.56 per cent. Gold fell more than 1 per cent as the dollar strengthened. Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board, summed up the disappointment with Friday's report. There is little hope of an acceleration in the pace of job growth any time soon. These conditions are likely to persist at least through the summer and possibly longer. This economy has no forward momentum and little help from monetary or fiscal policy. The data released on Friday confirm that the US is still suffering from the crisis in the eurozone, and the slowdown in growth in key emerging markets. Private payrolls were up by 84,000, slowing from May when they were up by 105,000 new positions. Employment in construction rose by 2,000, compared with a drop of 35,000 in May, while manufacturers added 11,000 jobs, roughly unchanged from 9,000 the previous month. The government sector, which has been a big drag on the labour market, showed a modest improvement, with 4,000 jobs lost compared to 28,000 fewer in May. One silver lining in the report was the increase in both hours worked and earnings, which could bode well for the outlook. In the separate household survey, which measures the unemployment rate, most measures were relatively constant. The labour force participation rate, for example, remained unchanged at 63.8 per cent. Political reaction was swift after the report was released, with sharp attacks from Republicans. The president has had three years to get the economy going again, but he has not. His policies have not worked, and we can't afford to keep going down the same path," said Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives. Bob Casey, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania and chairman of the joint economic committee, said: "We still have more work to do to recover from our losses during the Great Recession. Washington must continue to do everything possible to strengthen the economy and help unemployed Americans get back to work.