Bill Gross of Pacific Investment Management Co. said governmentsshould be focusing on creating growth rather than reducing debtafter a report showed employment in the U.S. stagnated inAugust.

“To do it right now is almost suicidal,” Gross, manager of theworld's biggest bond fund, said in a radio interview on “BloombergSurveillance” with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt.

Payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading sinceSeptember 2010, after an 85,000 gain in July that was less thaninitially estimated, Labor Department data showed today inWashington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey calledfor a rise of 65,000. Hourly earnings and hours worked bothdeclined. The August data included a 48,000 drop in informationindustry jobs, mostly reflecting striking Verizon CommunicationsInc. workers.