Adviser says Obama subdued, disappointed by latest jobs report

After celebrating last month over an uptick in employment, President Barack Obama received the December jobs report, which showed a loss of 85,000 jobs, with subdued disappointment.
 
Christina Romer, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, described the president and his advisers as sitting on pins and needles in anticipation of the national jobs report each month.
 

“I think it's a tribute to just how much he focused on this,” Romer said of the president. “The first Friday of every month is this incredibly tense day. We're all desperate to see progress, because we know how important it is to the economy and the people.”
 
Obama hugged Romer when he found out that the economy had lost a mere 11,000 jobs in November. The Labor Department has since revised its findings to report the economy gained 2,000 jobs in the period covered by the November report.
 
Obama’s response to the jobs report that came out Friday, which showed unemployment stuck at 10 percent, was considerably different.
 
“He was, of course, subdued. He was disappointed. We all were, right?” Romer said.

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