Obama: US economy still facing challenges

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Faced with a dismal new jobs report, President Barack Obama said today that the economy faces challenges ahead and "bumps on the road to recovery."

But at an event to celebrate the resurgence of the auto industry he made no mention of the dour economic news that threatened to obscure his optimistic message.

Obama's visit to a Chrysler plant in politically important Ohio came after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employers in May added the fewest jobs in eight months — a meager 54,000 — and the unemployment rate inched up to 9.1 percent.

Normally, Obama talks about the monthly jobs numbers the day they're released, but he never mentioned them directly today — an omission immediately noted by Republicans who see the economy as Obama's greatest weakness heading into the 2012 campaign.

The president focused instead on the turnaround in the auto industry and how the government has recouped much more money than anticipated from the capital it sunk into Chrysler and General Motors two years ago to save them from collapse.