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CNBC Shows Stocks Tumbling as Earnest Tries to Spin Poor Jobs Report

June 3, 2016

White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded on CNBC to the poor jobs report that came out Friday, but as Earnest was spinning, the unfortunate on-screen graphic showed stocks continuing to drop.

Squawk on the Street co-host David Faber asked Earnest about how only 38,000 jobs were added to the economy and the continuing trend of people leaving the workforce. Economists had expected 158,000 jobs to be added.

"I have been reacting to jobs numbers here at the White House for more than seven years," Earnest said. "What's true today has been true in the past which is we don't get too excited when jobs numbers are better than expected. We don't get too disappointed when the one-month jobs numbers are lower than expected."

Earnest said that the White House was more focused on the longer-term trends. Faber pointed out that thousands of people were leaving the workforce, which caused the participation rate and the unemployment claims to go down.

"What we're taking a look at are the longer term numbers, and the longer-term trends indicate that the United State economy is the strongest, most durable economy in the world," Earnest said.

As Earnest continued to talk about how the Obama administration has helped improve the economy over the past six to nine months, stocks continued to drop:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 97 points, or 0.5%, to 17741. The S&P 500 lost 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 0.6%. Shares of big banks, which tend to benefit from higher rates, fell sharply.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dropped to 1.714%, compared with 1.794% ahead of the report and 1.811% on Thursday.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, declined 1.3%. Gold gained 2.4% to $1,238.60 an ounce.

CNBC host Jim Cramer called the numbers embarrassing. Earnest blamed the media for focusing solely on the current months numbers and not the long-term trend.

"This month's jobs number is instructive but it can't be determinative in terms of drawing our success on the economy," Earnest said.

Published under: CNBC , Jobs , Josh Earnest