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After months of gains the U.S Labor Department reported on Friday, 142,000 jobs had been created far less than many economists had predicted.

Politico reported The Labor Department reported that the economy added 142,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 6.1 percent. The payroll figure fell short of expectations — analysts had estimated that about 230,000 jobs were added last month, according to a Bloomberg survey

The New York Times reported the unemployment rate did fall by 0.1 percentage point to 6.1 percent last month, but that was because more people dropped out of the work force rather than found jobs.

The Labor Department added that the civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent reversing a slight gain in July, still the lowest level since 1978.

In the Labor Department’s report listed the unemployment rate for major groups across the country.  Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates in August showed little or no change for adult men (5.7 percent), adult women (5.7 percent), teenagers (19.6 percent), whites (5.3 percent), blacks (11.4 percent), and Hispanics (7.5 percent). The jobless rate for Asians was 4.5 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics which added more fuel on an already dismal job report, reported a record over 92 million Americans not participating in the labor force in August.

As you can imagine Republicans pounced on this report with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), commenting “With job growth slowing to its lowest level this year, Senate Democrats are out of excuses for stalling the dozens of House-passed jobs bills that are stuck in that chamber,” he said in a statement. “It’s time for them to get to work.”

The Obama administration has highlighted that jobs have been added the past couple months and one cannot gauge the strength of the U.S. economy after one month.

“The economy is clearly moving in the right direction,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said on CNBC. “We’re averaging very solid gains.” He added that the August numbers were “less than the recent trend,” but that “you never look at one month.”

With the dismal job number Wall Street looked at this report as evidence that the Federal Reserve will hold off winding down its quantitative easing and push off raising interest rates.

Last month Federal Reserve Cahir Janet Yellen, speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming stated, “if progress in the labor market continues to be more rapid than anticipated by the committee, or if inflation moves up more rapidly than anticipated, resulting in faster convergence toward our dual objectives, then increases in the federal funds rate target could come sooner than the committee currently expects and could be more rapid thereafter,”

The dismal jobs number places Democrats in a precarious situation with foreign policy challenges in Ukraine and the Middle East, the last thing they need to be worried about the state of the U.S. economy heading into November’s mid-term election.

No matter what is going on overseas Americans still view the economy as there most pressing issue.