WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July, a hopeful sign after three months of sluggish hiring.
The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June.
July's hiring was the best since February. Still, the economy has only added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year, roughly the same as last year's pace. That's not enough to satisfy the 12.8 million Americans who are unemployed.
However, unemployment isn't as high for us in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's unemployment is at 7 percent, up from 6.8 percent in June.
And it looks even better in La Crosse County at 5.9 percent, still up from 5.2 percent in June.
Shane Gesler, Manpower Staffing Specialist said that's because La Crosse has a lot of talent.
"We're lucky to have Western, the University, Viterbo, we've got other agencies like Globe for example so we have a lot of training opportunities so I think we have a lot of skilled labor in comparison to some maybe in some other areas of the state," Gesler said.
High unemployment could hurt President Barack Obama's re-election hopes. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment over 8 percent.
He said Manpower is also seeing an increase in the number of jobs employers have available.
But, he said since there are so many unemployed people, employers can be picky with who they decide to hire.
The rate increased because the government uses two surveys: A survey of businesses showed job gains, but a survey of households showed fewer people had jobs. Economists say the business survey is more reliable.
