White House says shutdown cost economy 120K jobs

“So as we look at more of October, those numbers could change and could potentially get worse,” he said Tuesday during a White House briefing.

Other economists have estimated the shutdown cut economic growth by half a percentage point.

{mosads}The economy grew at a 2.5 percent pace between April and June.

Furman noted that the economy has seen 43 straight months of job growth, with a gradually declining unemployment rate.

Still, the labor market, while improving, hasn’t picked up the pace to create enough jobs to significantly lower the jobless rate.

“We just can’t be satisfied with where it is, and, you know, we want to be doing more to move it in those right directions,” Furman said.

The economy added 148,000 jobs in September and the jobless rate fell to 7.2 percent in a report released on Tuesday that had been delayed since Oct. 4.