WASHINGTON — A White House economic adviser says Friday's jobs report shows the economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn in a generation.

Alan Krueger is chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He says more work remains to be done. Krueger says policies to speed job creation and expand the middle class are critical to digging out from the recession that took hold in December 2007.

The Labor Department said Friday that U.S. employers added 162,000 jobs in July. That modest gain was enough to reduce the unemployment rate to a 4½-year low of 7.4 percent, down from 7.6 percent in June.