US employers added 163,000 jobs last month

The U.S. says its labor market improved in July, even as the national jobless rate edged higher. The government reported this week that employers added 163,000 jobs last month, the most since February.

But even as more unemployed workers found new jobs, the country’s unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent in July, up from 8.2 percent recorded the previous two months. The U.S. jobless rate has now been above 8 percent for 42 months in a row as the country has struggled to recover from its worst recession since the 1930s.

The government said nearly 13 million U.S. workers remain unemployed. The growth of the world’s largest economy slowed in the April-to-June period to an anemic 1.5 percent pace, down from a faster advance earlier in the year.

The state of the economy is the biggest issue in the U.S. presidential election campaign, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney blaming the Democratic incumbent, President Barack Obama, for the slow pace of the recovery. Mr. Obama says that Republican policies in effect before he took office in 2009 contributed greatly to the recession and the sluggish advance during his White House tenure.

Romney described July’s increased jobless rate as a “hammer blow” to middle-class families, and said America can do better. Mr. Obama took note of the continued job growth, but acknowledged that too many people are still out of work.