WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that private sector job creation was a "step in the right direction" but not enough to be satisfied with the pace of hiring.

"We've got to grow the economy even faster and we've got to put more people back to work," Obama told a campaign rally in the election battleground state of Ohio after a government report showed after a weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report for June.

The Labor Department said non-farm payrolls expanded by just 80,000 jobs last month and unemployment remained at a stubbornly high 8.2 percent.

(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick)