US President Barack Obama admitted after the release of dismaying jobs data Friday that America still had a long way to go to salve the "sting of recession" and that "rough terrain" lay ahead.

The president, at a Chrysler Jeep factory in Ohio saved by his high-risk auto industry bailout, also mounted a strong defense of his economic policies, as signs of a slowing recovery clouded his 2012 reelection hopes.

"We have still got a long way to go, not just in this industry, but in our economy," Obama said, remembering "all our friends, all our neighbors who are still feeling the sting of recession."

"There is nobody here who doesn't know someone who is looking for work and hasn't found something yet," Obama said at the plant, which makes Wrangler Jeeps in the critical political swing state of Ohio.

"Even though the economy is growing, even though it has created more than two million jobs in over the past 15 months, we still face some tough times," Obama said, without specifically mentioning Friday's jobs data.

New Labor Department data showed Friday that the economy added a paltry 54,000 new jobs last month, one-quarter of the February-April pace, in the latest release of worrying economic figures.

The politically sensitive unemployment rate, meanwhile, edged up to 9.1 percent, complicating Obama's message that he turned the economy around, as he and his Republican foes fire up their 2012 election campaigns.

"We still face some tough challenges, this economy took a big hit," Obama said.

"It is taking a while to mend. There are still some headwinds coming at us," he said, noting that even a Jeep might find the "rough terrain" challenging.

Mentioning that US economic output had been hit lately by high gasoline prices and supply disruptions from Japan's quake-tsunami tragedy, Obama warned "there are always going to be bumps on the road to recovery."

However, he cited the 80 billion dollar auto industry bailout, which the White House said effectively saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, as an example of his economic policies working.

"We know what is possible when we invest in what works ... we have got to rebuild this whole economy for a new age."

Obama used the rebound of the US car industry, after bailouts and government managed bankruptcies taken by General Motors and Chrysler, as a symbol of his wider economic policy and to repel attacks by Republicans.

"We could have done what a lot of folks in Washington thought we should do, and that is nothing," Obama said.

"We could've just let US automakers go into an uncontrolled free fall ... and that would have triggered a cascade of damage all across the country.

"If we let Chrysler and GM fail, plants like this would've shut down, then dealers and suppliers across the country would've shriveled up, then Ford and other automakers could have failed too."

The industry has added 115,000 jobs since GM and Chrysler exited bankruptcy and, along with Ford, are now churning out profits and popular new energy efficient models.

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