WASHINGTON  President Obama said Friday that the encouraging report on jobs shows that “we’re pointed in the right direction” and that the beginning of the end of the recession should spur policies to avoid a similar calamity for the nation.

“We’re losing jobs at less than half the rate we were when I took office,” the president said in the White House Rose Garden, taking comfort in a report showing that “only” 247,000 jobs were lost in July, the smallest monthly drop since last August. And in an unexpected reversal, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent from 9.5 percent the previous month.

Mr. Obama used the heartening figures to argue again for an overhaul of the health-care system, a renewed commitment to education and “new, clean energy sources for our industries.” The president did not mention former President George W. Bush by name, but it was clear that he was alluding to Bush policies.