WASHINGTON (AFP) — US unemployment edged down to 9.0 percent last month, as official figures confirmed Friday that the economic recovery is only strong enough to nibble away at brutal levels of joblessness.

The Labor Department said the economy managed to break away from three months of 9.1 percent unemployment in October, but that jobs are being generated at a pace that offers little succor to the 14 million Americans looking for work.

The economy created 80,000 jobs in October, slightly worse than economists expected, although there were heavy upward revisions for previous months.

''While this report is not good enough, several key numbers are now moving in the right direction,'' said Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist with High Frequency Economics.

''The odds of significantly better employment reports over the next few months seem to be improving.''

That offered only limited consolation to President Barack Obama, who is racing to improve the jobs picture before elections in November 2012.

Speaking at the G20 summit in Cannes, France, Obama said the jobs figures were ''positive'' but indicated ''once again that the economy is growing way too slow.''

Over the past 12 months, an average of 125,000 nonfarm jobs were created each month, the Labor Department reported, much fewer than needed to substantially bring down the unemployment rate.

''To actually improve the unemployment rate, we need to be significantly above where we are today on job creation,'' said Matt McDonald of Hamilton Place Strategies.

''To get below eight percent unemployment by election day, the economy needs to create 263,000 jobs per month,'' he said, referring to the US presidential election on November 6, 2012.

The jobs report, while moving in the right direction, is likely to confirm suspicions that the US economy is only just avoiding stall speed.

''The latest jobs report shows another month of unacceptably high unemployment,'' said Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, as he urged Obama to work with his party.