WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy needs to create jobs at a faster pace and Congress should adopt a proposal by President Barack Obama to help cash-strapped state and local governments to retain workers, a top White House economic adviser said on Friday.

"We weren't creating enough jobs before the recession; the recession just made the jobs gap much bigger," Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council Of Economic Advisers told CNBC.

"If Congress were to act on the President's proposal to help state and local governments to retain teachers, firefighters and policemen and also to invest more on infrastructure, we can put more Americans back to work quickly."

Employers added 80,000 positions in June, the third month in a row of sub-100,000 job growth.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by James Dalgleish)