FACTBOX: U.S. candidates, Bush react to June job losses

(Reuters) - U.S. employers cut workers from their payrolls for the sixth straight month in June, shedding 62,000 jobs while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent. Meanwhile weekly jobless claims jumped to 404,000 last week. Here is what President George W. Bush and the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates had to say about the data:

WHITE HOUSE SPOKESWOMAN DANA PERINO

"We are no doubt in a period of slow growth, it is growth nonetheless but it's very slow and it's had an impact on employment.

"It's caused by a variety of factors including higher energy prices and the fallout from the overbuilding in the housing sector, which caused a supply demand problem and then we also had as a result of that some financial market turbulence. The president is very much aware of the effect this has on average Americans, and especially low-income Americans.

"That is why we have worked to do a few things, one, get the stimulus checks out the door -- and in fact I just checked that 105 million payments have been made worth over $86 billion so far."

REPUBLICAN SEN. JOHN MCCAIN

"Americans across this country are hurting and today's job numbers are just the latest indication. From rising gas prices to home foreclosures, families are struggling to meet economic challenges that become greater every day. Washington can no longer abdicate its responsibility to act. Our focus must be clear: enact policies to create jobs today.

"To get our economy back on track, we must enact a jobs-first economic plan that supports job creation, provide immediate tax relief for families, enact a plan to help those facing foreclosure, lower health care costs, invest in innovation, move toward strategic energy independence and open more foreign markets to our goods."

DEMOCRATIC SEN. BARACK OBAMA

"Our economy has now shed 438,000 jobs over the past six months, while workers' wages fail to keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of gas, groceries and healthcare. The American people are paying the price for the failed economic policies of the past eight years, and we can't afford four more years of more of the same. That is the essential issue of this campaign because Senator McCain has fully embraced the Bush economic agenda. I believe it has to change.

"But, as these numbers demonstrate, the American people can't wait another six months. We need action now. That's why I'm calling on Congress and the President to enact real, immediate relief with energy rebates for working families this summer, a fund to help families avoid foreclosure, extended benefits for the long-term jobless, and assistance to states that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn."

(Compiled by Donna Smith; editing by Eric Beech)