Economy adds 163,000 jobs but jobless rate ticks up to 8.3 percent

The economy added 163,000 jobs in July, nearly double the pace of the last three months and well above expectations.
The unemployment rate actually ticked up a tenth of a point to 8.3 percent, however, giving a mixed bag of political numbers for President Obama and Mitt Romney in a fight for the White House centered on the economy. Stocks surged on the news, with the Dow Jones Industrial up nearly 200 points a half-hour after the opening bell.
Romney argues Obama has mismanaged the economy, and the president faces a battle with history given the unemployment rate. No sitting president since Franklin Roosevelt has won reeelection with a jobless rate above 8 percent. 

Romney released a statement shortly after the report insisting his economic plan would create 12 million U.S. jobs by the end of his first term.
"President Obama doesn’t have a plan and believes that the private sector is ‘doing fine,'" Romney said "Obviously, that is not the case. We’ve now gone 42 consecutive months with the unemployment rate above eight percent. Middle class Americans deserve better, and I believe America can do better.”
The White House said the report offered further evidence the economy is recovering from the worst downturn since the Great Depression.
"It is critical that we continue the policies that build an economy that works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007," White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan Krueger said in a statement.
Obama is expected to comment on the numbers later on Friday morning.
Congressional Republicans lashed out at the president over the new figures.
"This month’s jobs numbers underscore the failure of the Obama administration's policies," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a statement.
"We won’t see any real change to unemployment until we change the policies that brought us here.
"The president’s push for raising taxes on working families and small business owners is counter to the aim of creating jobs."
Most observers had expected the hotly anticipated report to show gains of around 100,000 jobs after a summer slowdown in the U.S. economy. In May and June, the economy added only 141,000 jobs combined.
Economic growth also cooled in the second quarter to 1.5 percent growth on an annualized basis amid fears about the European crisis and a "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts that could kick in to the U.S. economy in January.
Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Analytics, was encouraged by the July figures and chalked up the weakness in the spring numbers to weather and technical issues.
"Most encouraging is that the job gains are increasingly broad based across industries. Only government is laying off," he said.
Still, he said job growth is not enough to reduce unemployment, making the economy "vulnerable to anything else that goes wrong." 
"There is plenty to worry about in coming months, including Europe's debt crisis and our own fiscal problems," he said. He also said he is not expecting a broader improvement in the economy that will bring down the jobless rate until next year.
Manufacturing added 25,000 jobs in July, even as the sector contracted for the second straight month.
Healthcare added 12,000 jobs and retailers hired an additional 7,000 workers.
Employment in professional and business services, such as temporary help firms, increased by 49,000 in July.
Restaurants and bars added 29,000 jobs.
Governments, which have cut more than 100,000 jobs in the past year which has weighed on job growth, laid off another 9,000.
There was a mix of news on revisions — May's figures were revised upward to 87,000 from 77,000 but June's numbers were worse than
Governments, which have cut more than 100,000 jobs in the past year which has weighed on job growth, laid off another 9,000.
There was a mix of news on revisions — May's figures were revised upward to 87,000 from 77,000 but June's numbers were worse than initially though, falling to 64,000 jobs from the initial estimate of 80,000.
Since the beginning of this year, employment growth has averaged 151,000 per month, about the same as the average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.