Obama focuses on jobs as new numbers show slight uptick
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With today’s unemployment numbers offering some encouragement, President Obama shifts gears from foreign affairs to domestic concerns, and how to create more jobs in a tough economy.
Obama will host his Jobs and Economic Growth Forum. He is scheduled to deliver opening remarks to about 130 business and labor leaders and economists who will advise him on how to create jobs.
Today’s session comes as the Labor Department reported that the number of workers seeking unemployment benefits fell for the fifth consecutive week.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the lowest number since September 2008. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped for the 13th straight week to 481,250, about 180,000 below the peak for the current recession.
The current unemployment rate is 10.2% and the nation has been losing jobs for 22 months. The November jobs report, to be released Friday, is expected to show that the country has continued to lose jobs.
Against those numbers, the Obama administration has been pushing hard on job creation, with the president arguing that new jobs were a primary goal. He is expected to sound that same theme today and in a visit to Allentown, Pa., on Friday.
--Michael Muskal
