The nation’s economy added 195,000 new jobs in June and the jobless rate remained at 7.6%, according to  figures released this morning  by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The jobs reported in June marked 39 straight months of tepid job growth. The economy has added almost 200,000 jobs a month for the past three months.

But economists say the growth rate is far too slow to fuel a healthy jobs recovery given the depth of job loss during the recession. The current pace of job growth is enough to absorb new entrants into the market but makes little dent on the jobs deficit. In fact, the numbers are even less encouraging because again in June participation in the workforce declined.

The slow job growth reinforces the need for Congress to repeal the sequester and its across-the-board cuts that will cost more than 750,000 jobs this year alone. Sequester cuts continue to undermine the economic recovery. In June, federal government employment was down by 5,000 and 65,000 federal workers have lost their jobs over the past year, most due to sequestration. The sequester is also hurting people who have been unemployed for longer than 26 weeks . Those emergency lifeline benefits, known as Emergency Unemployment Compensation, are subject to sequester cuts 

Says Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project :

Congress’s first priority should be job creation and restoring opportunity through work for the millions who remain unemployed. Yet Congress has made an uphill climb for the long-term unemployed even steeper.  Before they leave for summer recess, our elected representatives need to undo the unnecessary and damaging mess they’ve created and repeal the sequester. 

Many economists say that the overall weakness in the labor market highlighted by today’s job report  shows why the Federal Reserve needs to be focused on returning the United States to full employment and not back off measures aimed strengthening the economy’s underpinnings.

The number of long-term unemployed (those who are jobless for 27 weeks or more) dropped slightly to 4.3 million, or about 37% of the jobless. The number of long-term jobless has dropped by 1 million over the past 12 months.

The unemployment rates for adult men (7 %), teenagers (24%), whites (6.6 %), African Americans (13.7%) and Latinos (9.1%) showed little or no change in June. The jobless rate for Asian Americans was 5% up last month’s 4.3% and for women was up slightly from 6.5% to 6.8%

The biggest job gains were in leisure and hospitality (75,000), professional and business services (53,000), retail (37,000) and health care (20,000).

Employment in most other major industries, including mining and logging, construction, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing, showed little change in June.