(Image Credit: Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

The latest jobs report is "further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal" but that faster growth is needed to put more Americans back to work, the White House says.

Reacting to this morning's better-than-expected figures, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger writes in a White House blog that "it is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007."

Krueger points to the need to extend the payroll tax cut through the end of the year and to adopt the agenda outlined by the president in his State of the Union address.

The unemployment rate in January fell 0.2 percentage point to 8.3 percent and the economy created 243,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported today. "Nonetheless, we need faster growth to put more Americans back to work," Krueger writes.

The White House notes that unemployment numbers can be volatile and stresses that "it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign," Krueger writes.