The economy gained just 69,000 jobs in May, way down from economists’ expectations of 150,000 or more, ticking the unemployment rate up to 8.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday. Adding insult to injury, already sluggish jobs numbers from March and April were revised downward by 49,000. The year’s early gains are starting to look more like an outlier than a recovery building real momentum. 
 
 There’s no sugar-coating Friday’s report: It’s bad. That makes President Obama’s job that much harder as he tries to gain the upper hand against Mitt Romney on the economy. 
 
 “Today’s weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families,” Mitt Romney said in a statement. “This week has seen a cascade of one bad piece of economic news after another. Slowing GDP growth, plunging consumer confidence, an increase in unemployment claims, and now another dismal jobs report all stand as a harsh indictment of the President’s handling of the economy. It is now clear to everyone that President Obama’s policies have failed to achieve their goals and that the Obama economy is crushing America’s middle class. The president’s re-election slogan may be ‘forward,’ but it seems like we’ve been moving backward. We can do so much better in America. That’s why I’m running for president.” 
 
 The White House pointed to an increase in labor participation as a bright spot, but officials urged Congress to respond with new measures to prevent public-sector job losses and investment in stimulative infrastructure projects. 
 
 “In the American Jobs Act and in the State of the Union Address, the president put forward a number of proposals to create jobs and strengthen the economy, including proposals that would put teachers back in the classroom and cops on the beat, and put our nation’s construction workers back on the job rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure,” Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement. 
 
 The numbers come as Obama and Romney are competing to sell their agendas as the fix for the nation’s job woes — and tear down the other guy’s qualifications. 
 
 In Obama’s case, he’s been on the road touting 27 months of private-sector job growth, pointing to successes like the auto rescue in Detroit and trying to remind Americans of the catastrophic 2008 financial collapse he inherited and the Republican administration that presided over it. On offense, his campaign embarked on a lengthy and often tumultuous effort to introduce general election voters to Romney’s history at Bain Capital, highlighting cases where companies taken over by the firm suffered through layoffs and bankruptcy while investors profited handsomely. More recently they’ve tried to undermine Romney through his jobs record as governor, with Obama’s top strategist David Axelrod in Boston Thursday to make the case that Romney sold the state’s voters the same bill of goods about being a “job creator” in 2002 only to see job growth at the 47th worst rate in the nation. 
 
 For Romney, who was thrown off message this week by supporter Donald Trump’s return to the birther cause, the jobs report is a welcome chance to highlight his own economic message. On Thursday, he held an oddly secretive press event outside of a Solyndra building in California, arguing that the solar company’s bankruptcy despite receiving federal loan guarantees was emblematic of the White House’s broader failure to jumpstart the economy with stimulus spending. His latest ad is a feel-good spot pledging that if elected, “President Romney’s leadership puts jobs first.” 
 
 Obama is buoyed by disproportionately stronger growth in key swing states, particularly Ohio and Virginia, but it’s an open question how much of a cushion that will give him if the national recovery continues to slow down. Economists fear that the worst may be yet to come: Europe is still dealing with a debt crisis and another collapse there could spill over into the American economy. 
 
 Benjy Sarlin Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun. ||||| Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 
 
 Stock prices tumbled on Wall Street Friday after a report showed job growth in May was the weakest in a year and employers added fewer jobs in the prior two months than previously reported -- another blow to investors worried about global growth. 
 
 The Dow Jones industrial average was lately down over 200 points. Other stocks indexes also fell sharply. 
 
 The Labor Department’s latest jobs report showed U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, as the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April -- the first increase in 11 months. 
 
 The government also said the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought, revising numbers down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created. 
 
 The market had discounted a mildly negative employment report, said Barton Biggs, a hedge fund manager at Traxis Partners. 
 
 “But it hadn’t discounted the kind of numbers we saw this morning,” he told CNBC Friday. 
 
 The dismal jobs data are likely to stoke fears that the U.S. economy is struggling. It could also weigh on President Barack Obama's re-election hopes and lead the U.S. Federal Reserve to take more steps to prop up the economy. 
 
 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the jobs report “devastating news” and a sign that President Obama's economic policies have failed. 
 
 "Today's weak jobs report is devastating news for American workers and American families," he said in a statement. 
 
 He called the May report "a harsh indictment of the President's handling of the economy." 
 
 "It is now clear to everyone that President Obama's policies have failed to achieve their goals and that the Obama economy is crushing America's middle class. The president's re-election slogan may be 'forward,' but it seems like we've been moving backward," he said. 
 
 The troubles in the euro zone were also a focus for Wall Street, as investors digested the latest economic data from the region. 
 
 Unemployment the euro zone was 11 percent in April. The figure was unchanged from March, but still at the highest level since records started in 1995. Spain’s had the highest rate in the region at 24.3 percent. 
 
 Treasury yields hit their lowest level in hundreds of years and global stock indexes dropped toward 2012 lows as investors scrambled for lifelines amid worries about Spain's parlous finances and China's growth outlook. 
 
 Chinese demand seen slowing, record after record has tumbled across asset classes as investors seek security for their cash. 
 
 The German two-year bond yield fell below zero for the first time, meaning investors are paying for the right to hold that debt. Other "safe havens" Denmark and Switzerland said they were prepared to set negative interest rates to prevent their currencies spiraling. 
 
 Oil fell below the psychologically key level of $100 a barrel, striking an eight-month low. 
 
 "We've had constant worries about Greece, Spain, the euro, poor data from the U.S., and overnight the Chinese data was not positive," said Tony Machacek, an oil futures broker at Jefferies Bache. 
 
 The euro hit its lowest against the dollar in nearly two years at $1.2316 while 10- and 30-year German Bund yields hit all-time lows. The dollar index rose to a 21-month high. 
 
 Madrid's need to recapitalize its troubled banks and shore up its heavily indebted regions is the latest focus for turbulent markets, though IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied late on Thursday that the Fund was preparing financial assistance for Spain. 
 
 Spaniards alarmed by the dire state of their banks are squirreling money abroad at the fastest rate since records began, figures showed on Thursday. 
 
 The gloomy economic news was not confined to Europe. 
 
 Weighing on the global demand outlook, China's official purchasing managers' index fell to 50.4 in May from April's 13-month high of 53.3. 
 
 Earlier, European stocks fell to their lowest levels this year. 
 
 Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Barack Obama on Friday took a more strident tone with Europe in contrast to two years of quiet prodding, urging the region’s leaders to aid the troubled banking sector and warning of the fallout if Greece were to leave the euro zone. 
 
 And on the domestic front, the president ignited a fire-storm of reaction when he said in a brief news conference that “the private sector is doing fine,” noting that the American labor market had created 800,000 jobs in the last year. 
 
 Obama later backed away from his remarks on the economy, saying that it was “absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine.” See our analysis. 
 
 With regards to Europe, Obama said he has tried hard over the past two years not to scold Europeans and be constructive. But in his comments to reporters in the White House briefing room, Obama basically gave Europe a “to-do” list. 
 
 Click to Play Obama on the economy Paul Vigna talks with Kathleen Madigan about the president’s comments on the U.S. and global economy. 
 
 “The good news is there is a path out of this challenge,” Obama said. 
 
 In the short-term, Europe must stabilize its financial system and inject capital into weak banks as soon as possible, Obama said. Spain is expected on Saturday to request aid for its banks.Read more on Spain. 
 
 European leaders must also show a political commitment to a stronger euro zone and fiscal integration, he said. 
 
 “It is in everybody’s interest for Greece to remain in the euro zone” and respect its prior commitments, Obama said. 
 
 “The Greek people also need to recognize that their hardships will likely be worse if they leave the euro zone,” he said. Greece holds national elections on June 17. 
 
 Obama also repeated his support for a new growth agenda for Europe to go along with the existing tough austerity plans. 
 
 Urges Congress to do more 
 
 At the same time, Obama urged Congress to reconsider his jobs plan, saying that it would help state and local governments and the construction industry, which he called the weakest sectors of the economy. 
 
 Obama said that the labor market had created 800,000 jobs in the last year and “the private sector is doing fine.” 
 
 “If Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is, ‘How do we help state and local governments?’ and, ‘How do we help the construction industry?’” he said. 
 
 So far, Republican plans would slow growth and create fewer jobs, he said.
– You don't have to look at the sinking Dow—which is now in negative territory for the year—to get a sense of just how bleak today's jobs report was. A glance at financial blogs offers a depressing reminder: Felix Salmon, Reuters: It's "about as bad the jobs report could possibly be." We're in a crisis, and the government's response should be clear: Borrow money at the low rates now available and re-invest in the economy through infrastructure spending, etc. Unfortunately, "Obama is bizarrely reluctant to talk about anything which rhymes with 'stimulus.' As a result, the current dysfunction—and horribly weak jobs market—is likely to persist for far too long." David Leonhardt, New York Times: The report is "terrible" and marks the third straight year of a spring slump. "What happens now? Don’t expect much action from Congress, despite the talk you will hear. The jobs numbers will certainly raise the odds of further action by the Federal Reserve, but it’s not clear by how much. Perhaps most important, the decisions of European policy makers loom even larger now." From the right: It's an "unmitigated flop," writes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. "There is no positive spin that can be put on this report. It’s an indictment of Obama’s stagnation and incompetence at economics." From the left: "There’s no sugar-coating Friday’s report: It’s bad," writes Benjy Sarlin at Talking Points Memo. "That makes President Obama’s job that much harder as he tries to gain the upper hand against Mitt Romney on the economy." Swing states are doing better, "but it’s an open question how much of a cushion that will give him if the national recovery continues to slow down."