When the August jobs report was issued by the Labor Department, one figure stuck out like a sore thumb - "(0)" - the number of net new jobs created last month by the U.S. economy.

Overall, the unemployment stayed the same at 9.1%, but that wasn't the big story, as the lack of new jobs underscored concerns about the direction of the economy overall.

"The American people are still asking, ‘where are the jobs?’" said House Speaker John Boehner, as he led a parade of shots at the White House over the condition of the economy.

"Spending trillions of dollars we do not have on efforts to stimulate the economy from Washington has not worked," added Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).

The White House acknowledged that unemployment remains "unacceptably high," as the Obama Administration again tried to find some slivers of good news in the jobs report.

"Despite a slowdown in economic growth from substantial headwinds experienced throughout the year, the economy has added private sector jobs for 18 straight months, for a total of 2.4 million jobs over that period," said Katharine Abraham.

"Clearly, faster growth is needed to replace the jobs lost in the downturn," Abraham added in a written statement on the White House web site.

The Labor Department's report also trimmed back job growth from earlier this summer, reporting that 20,000 jobs were created in June instead of 46,000 and 85,000 in July instead of 117,000.

The White House again emphasized the positive by saying that private job numbers still increased in August by 17,000. That growth was offset by government job losses.

The lackluster jobs report will make next week's speech to Congress by President Obama even more of a political battleground, as the White House looks to spur economic growth.