Bill Gross of Pacific Investment Management Co. said governments should be focusing on creating growth rather than reducing debt after a report showed employment in the U.S. stagnated in August.

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

Payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since September 2010, after an 85,000 gain in July that was less than initially estimated, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a rise of 65,000. Hourly earnings and hours worked both declined. The August data included a 48,000 drop in information industry jobs, mostly reflecting striking Verizon Communications Inc. workers.