WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A disappointing U.S. jobs report has stunned Wall Street and triggered a fresh round of political recriminations as to who and what’s to blame.

The economy added a meager 18,000 jobs in June, stoking worries the U.S. economy is slumping again. See story on June jobs data.

Here is a sample of reaction on Wall Street and in Washington.

• “Today’s report is more evidence that the misguided ‘stimulus’ spending binge, excessive regulations, and an overwhelming national debt continue to hold back private-sector job creation in our country.” — House Speaker John Boehner

• “I think these numbers are a call to action for Washington to stop bickering ... and do the things to get the growth rate higher and create jobs. — Austan Goolsbee, chief economic adviser to President Barack Obama

• “We can see no silver lining in this employment report, which is weak, weak, weak.” — John Ryding, RDQ Economics

• “The details aren’t quite as bad as the headline, with private payrolls up 57,000, but that’s still pretty terrible when compared to the 240,000 average as recently as the three months to April.” — Ian Shepherdson, High Frequency Economics

• “The upshot is that exactly two years after the recovery began, broad labor market conditions haven’t improved at all.” — Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics

• “The June payroll employment report shows that companies continue to focus on cost cutting instead of expanding their business in the search of profits. This confirms that CEOs have no confidence in the sustainability of the recovery/expansion.” — Steven Ricchiuto, Mizuho Securities

• “Temporary workers, which usually rise when job growth is solid, declined. Firms often start off by hiring temps before determining they need permanent workers and that didn’t happen.” — Joel Naroff, Naroff Economic Advisors

• “With downward pressure on government payrolls likely to persist, it is important to look at the overall nonfarm payroll results rather than just those for the private sector.” — Joshua Shapiro, MFR Inc.

• “Simply put, this was a very weak report and it suggests that the slowdown in economic activity may have been deeper than thought. Even so, we believe that the worse of the slowdown is behind us and expect the pace of jobs growth and economic activity to accelerate in the coming months.” — Millan Mulraine, TD Securities

• “I hope the news that our economy is not creating jobs at an acceptable rate will cause Republicans to start taking job creation seriously. So far this year, Republicans have derailed every common-sense, bipartisan jobs bill we have brought to the floor. Today’s news also reminds us that we need to reduce the deficit in a way that will not dampen job creation.” — Harry Reid, Senate Majority leader

• “Today’s abysmal jobs report confirms what we all know – that President Obama has failed to get this economy moving again.” — Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for president