Obama on the economy: ‘The worst of the storm is over’

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‘The worst of the storm is over,’’ President Obama said Friday of a recovering American economy.

The president toured Celgard, a Charlotte, N.C.-based company that manufactures components for advanced batteries, promising to create new jobs with federal stimulus spending on alternative energy development.

‘We’ve been through the worst period of economic turmoil since the Great Depression,’’ Obama said on a day that the government reported that 162,000 jobs were created last month -- the best jobs report in three years, though unemployment held steady at 9.7%.

‘Today was an encouraging day. ... We are beginning to turn the corner ...’’ the president said. ‘While we’ve come a long way, we’ve still got a ways to go. We have to be mindful that today’s job numbers, while welcome, leave us with a lot more work to do ...

‘The truth is, there are some limits to what government can do,’’ Obama said. ‘Government cannot reverse the toll of this recession overnight. ... What government can do is create the conditions for companies to succeed. It can create the incentives for companies to hire again.’’

The company that the president toured Friday has received a $50-million matching grant for expansion of its factories, with an expectation that 300 jobs will be created. He said that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act he signed into law last year will boost the U.S. capacity for production of lithium batteries from 2% to 40% of the market.

‘It’s a strategy that will not only create jobs in the short term, but also sustain ... opportunity in the long run,’’ he said.

-- Mark Silva