WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) - U.S. employers stopped adding jobs last month – and Senate Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin blames a “lack of leadership” from President Obama.

The Labor Department said the national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in August, same as the month before.

The private sector added 17,000 jobs, the fewest since February – and the government announced downward revisions in its data for government jobs in both June and July.

The new figures put more pressure on the Democratic president, who plans a rare speech to Congress on Thursday evening to unveil a new plan to create jobs. But Johnson says Obama first needs to repeal federal rules he imposed on employers, saying they lead to increased costs and greater uncertainty for the economy.

Johnson ran for the Senate last year because he was upset with the health reform package passed by Obama and the Democrats. He said the repeal of that and other mandates would be a “first step to begin the process of creating long-term, self-sustaining private sector jobs.”

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