Obama pushes on job creation, amid din over Egypt

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President Barack Obama talks about Egypt at a news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington February 4, 2011. REUTERS/Larry Downing

President Barack Obama talks about Egypt at a news conference in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington February 4, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Fri Feb 4, 2011 5:55pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House released a strategy to promote U.S. innovation on Friday, keeping its focus on the politically important jobs issue as the Labor Department issued a mixed unemployment report.

Although turmoil in Egypt has been consuming the Obama administration's attention, a relatively high U.S. jobless rate remains a primary concern for U.S. voters, and the White House needs to convince them the president is keeping his eye on the economy.

Obama traveled to Pennsylvania on Thursday to announce a new plan to promote energy efficiency in commercial buildings and he travels to Michigan next Thursday to talk about his plan to extend wireless access.

The "Strategy for American Innovation" announced on Friday includes initiatives such as a plan to help businesses reach 98 percent of Americans with high-speed wireless access within five years, a program to improve the U.S. patent system and a commitment to clean energy.

"We want to see these things deployed so they are creating jobs now going forward," Gene Sperling, President Barack Obama's new top economic adviser, told a White House news briefing.

The Labor Department said on Friday that U.S. employment rose by only 36,000 jobs in January, far fewer than economists had expected, amid a bout of unusually harsh winter weather. But the unemployment rate fell to its lower level since April 2009, reaching 9.0 percent, from 9.4 percent in December.

Economists agreed the numbers showed a job market recovery was proceeding, if not gaining speed. Administration officials said the overall trend is encouraging although the jobless rate remains too high.

Obama's Republican opponents quickly pointed to the report as evidence that Obama's spending programs have not led to job growth and his efforts to tighten regulation of businesses are discouraging companies from hiring.

"Instead of more 'stimulus' spending and more debt ... we need less spending, more freedom and more certainty for those in America who create jobs," John Boehner, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, said after the unemployment report.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)
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Comments (2)
hujintaosson wrote:
The republicans want less regulation, but that is what brought us the recession. Obama wants spending, but I feel most of it is good spending. Just like your business. If you don’t invest, it can’t grow. However, I think education is the key. The unemployment rate is about 4 percent among those with a college degree and above 10 percent for those without. Also, many businesses find it hard to hire people with skills. For those who say that we don’t need everyone going to college, they might be correct. But we currently have 30 percent of Americans getting a college degree when we probably need around 50 percent.

Also, alternative fuels will reduce the trade deficit. The biggest import the US has is crude oil.

As for the internet, I can tell you from experience that some Asian nations like South Korea and Japan are beating us at this. I live in China, and their internet is horrible and maybe years behind the US even. But, South Korea and Japan are the leaders in this, and the internet is still the economic growth engine of the future.

I propose that we stop all economic aid to foreign nations. This is the best way to reduce the deficit slowly. If we are broke, we need to take care of our own house, which means investing in our own people. When we have billions going out to foreign nations every year, and nobody is talking about cutting any of it while talking about cutting investments in Americans, that is just wrong.

Feb 04, 2011 8:42pm EST  --  Report as abuse
ROWnine wrote:
The Department of labor assigns a number to most jobs supposedly based on what skills our employers say the jobs demands. You probably see these numbers in the want ads or if you ever went on unemployment you were told to search under a series of these numbers to find potential employers. Employers can seek alien employment if they advertise and can’t get good candidates, especially if the work is seasonal or short term in nature. For jobs that that employers can’t fill with USC’s Lawful Permanent Residents with a green card and also the illegal ones “Lawfully waiting for deportation or a hearing” with a temporary work authorization card the employer can request a Labor Certificate (Indicating the DOL does not have a backlog of people with these skills waiting in the wings. Yup you guessed it all the guys and gals who gave up going to the DOL to look may be screwing themselves unless the employer just wants cheap labor) and file an I-129 for foreign labor. I have three questions for Congress and our institutes of higher education. What are they doing with the part of the I-129 fees that are supposed to be used to entice students into these fields of study? (2.) Why are we allowing students from foreign countries without having met the same criteria as our High Schools if we really need all those course requirements in the US? (3.) Why don’t we use those same DOL numbers to determine what courses should receive aid for our institutions of higher learning? Maybe then artists and musicians will have to be funded by wealthy patrons or paying audiences but I doubt many will pay to see a cross in a jar of pee.

Feb 04, 2011 10:47pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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