President Obama expects unemployment situation get worse before gets better
President Obama sought today to get ahead of new unemployment numbers later this week, declaring the creation of long-term jobs to be “my administration’s overriding focus.”
The economy is recovering, he said, but jobs are a lagging indicator and he expects the unemployment situation to get worse before it gets better, Obama said at a meeting of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
The current jobless rate is 9.8 percent, its highest level since 1983. A new figure comes out Frday, and Obama and aides have said they would not be surprised to see unemployment top 10 percent.
In meeting with his recovery board, Obama said he wants to change the debt-driven nature of recent economc growth, one that led to drastic job losses when people couldn’t pay what they owed. Obama said he is seeking a “post-bubble gowth model, one that is sustainable.”
Obama cited last week’s report that the economy grew at a 3.5 percent clip between July and September, citing it as proof that his administration has “brought the economy back from the brink.”
“The question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families,” Obama said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but we will not rest until we are succeeding in generating the jobs that this economy needs.”
A membership list of Obama’s recovery board follows the jump.
President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board:
Anna Burger, Chair, Change to Win
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
William H. Donaldson, Former Chairman, SEC
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President & CEO, TIAA-CREF
Mark T. Gallogly, Founder & Managing Partner, Centerbridge Partners L..
Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury
Austan Goolsbee, Staff Director and Chief Economist
Jeff Immelt, Chairman & CEO, GE
Monica C. Lozano, Publisher & Chief Executive Officer, La Opinion
Charles E. Phillips, Jr., President, Oracle Corporation
Penny Pritzker, Chairman & Founder, Pritzker Realty Group
Larry Summers, Director of the National Economic Council
David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University
Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
Paul Volcker, Chairman
Robert Wolf, Chairman & CEO, UBS Group Americas
Administration Staff:
David Axelrod, Special Advisor to the President
Carol Browner, Office of Energy and Climate Change Director
Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staf
