Washington, DC – Americans seeking economic hope were disappointed again as the Obama administration reported the national jobless rate climbed back up to 9.6% in August. The U.S. lost 54,000 jobs last month as the Census Bureau shed 114,000 temporary workers and the private sector created a meager 67,000 jobs nationwide. 

“With unemployment rising and more than a million Americans simply giving up hope for a job, there is not much for job-seekers to celebrate this Labor Day," said U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the lead House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee. "Clearly we are not spending our way back to prosperity. Instead we have dug a deeper ditch for our job creators to attempt to climb out of."

6.2 million Americans have been out of work for more than half a year now and a majority of economists expect very slow growth for the remainder of 2010 and 2011 on top of last week's second quarter growth revision down to a sluggish annual rate of 1.6 percent.

“Enough is enough," said Brady. "The President needs to quit blaming everyone else on earth for his failed recovery and start fresh: change his economic team, change his economic policies and stop trying to tax and spend our way back to prosperity." 

Brady points out that as of August – the fourteenth month of “recovery” – the national unemployment rate is higher today than it was fourteen months ago, and Americans have actually lost 329,000 payroll jobs since the recession apparently ended.  

"The American people deserve better from Washington,” added Brady.