Obama: Too many people still looking for work

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says new jobs figures released Friday show there are too many people looking for work. He says “we’ve got more work to do on their behalf.”

The president is urging Congress to pass a tax cut extension for families making less than $250,000 a year. He says the “last thing” the nation should do is push higher taxes on middle-class families.

The government reported that private employers added 163,000 jobs in July, the best pace of hiring in five months. But the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent, from 8.2 percent in June.

Obama says the economy is not improving fast enough for many workers. But he noted that the private sector has created 4.5 million new jobs in the past 29 months.