Obama: Jobs Numbers Going in "Right Direction"

 President Barack Obama calls the U.S. unemployment figures for June "a step in the right direction," but he says he is not satisfied with the pace of the nation's economic recovery.  The Labor¹ Department says the U.S. economy added 84,000 private-sector jobs in June, fewer than expected, and that the unemployment rate remained at 8.2%.

At an elementary school near Youngstown, Ohio, President Obama said that is progress, but not enough.  "We cannot be satisfied, because our goal was never to just keep on working to get back to where we were back in 2007.  I want to get back to a time when middle-class families and those working to get into the middle class have some basic security," said Obama.

Obama's likely Republican opponent in the November election, Mitt² Romney, called the jobs numbers "another kick in the gut³ to middle-class families.""American families are struggling," said Romney.  "There is a lot of misery⁴ in America today.  And these numbers understate what people are feeling, and the amount of pain which is occurring in middle-class America."While vacationing in the Northeastern state of New Hampshire, Romney said the president's policies have not reignited the economy, put people back to work or reopened manufacturing plants.

Obama was in the second day of a two-day bus tour through the manufacturing-heavy states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, which many experts believe could be crucial in deciding the outcome of the election.

Both states suffered huge job losses in manufacturing, but both rebounded⁵ and now have unemployment rates below the national average.

The president has claimed that his 2009 government bailout of the then-troubled U.S. auto⁶ industry helped to spark the region's economic comeback.

Obama has appealed to working-class voters on this tour, saying he is representing their interests more than Governor Romney, who was a wealthy businessman before going into politics.

Romney says his business experience will help him create jobs and enable American businesses to prosper⁷.

After speaking in the industrial areas of Toledo, Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown, the president's next stop was the prestigious⁸ Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Young voters were a big part of the coalition⁹ that helped elect Obama in 2008, and he is counting on them again this year.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

3 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

4 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

5 rebounded   

弹回( rebound的过去式和过去分词 )； 反弹； 产生反作用； 未能奏效

参考例句：

• The ball rebounded from the goalpost and Owen headed it in. 球从门柱弹回，欧文头球将球攻进。
• The ball rebounded from his racket into the net. 球从他的球拍上弹回网中。

6 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

7 prosper   

v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣

参考例句：

• With her at the wheel,the company began to prosper.有了她当主管，公司开始兴旺起来。
• It is my earnest wish that this company will continue to prosper.我真诚希望这家公司会继续兴旺发达。

8 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

9 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。