As Jobless Rate Rises, White House Says it's 'Better Than Expected'

Even as the nation's unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent, the Obama administration said today the situation was "better than expected."

Oh my.

Citing a 67,000 increase in private-sector payrolls in August, Christina Romer, chair of the presidents Council of Economic Advisers, touted eight straight months of private-sector job growth.

But that modest growth is lower than was reported in early spring, and Romeracknowledged that the rate of job growth is not enough to bring the unemployment rate down.

Overall payroll employment fell by 54,000, as 114,000 temporary Census jobs were eliminated.

Florida's unemployment rate in July was 11.5 percent, up a 10th of a point from June. More than 1,055,000 Floridians are jobless, according to the latest data from the state Agency for Workforce Innovation.

"Against the backdrop of some unsettling economic data in the past few weeks, todays numbers are reassuring that growth and recovery are continuing," Romer said.

"At the same time, the fact that the growth of private-sector payrolls is below the level needed to keep up with normal growth of the labor force is obviously unacceptable. There are a number of steps we could take to help increase private-sector job growth and put the economy on a path of steadily declining unemployment. We will be working with Congress on these measures in the coming weeks," Romer concluded.