U.S. President-elect Barack Obama says his economic recovery plan is projected to save or create between three and four million jobs by the end of 2010.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Mr. Obama says more than 90 percent of those jobs are likely to be in the private sector. The remainder are expected to be public sector posts, such as teachers and police officers, whose jobs will be saved from state and local budget cuts.
The president-elect says the figures come from an analysis on the job impact of his recovery plan. Mr. Obama says he ordered his economic team to conduct the study so that Americans can see what his plan will do for them and the faltering economy.
In the report, Mr. Obama's economic advisors warn the estimates are subject to significant margins of error because they are based a hypothetical economic package which Congress would have to approve.
The report says Mr. Obama's plan will put more than half a million people to work on clean energy initiatives and another 400,000 on repairing the country's roads, bridges and schools.
The president-elect says Friday's announcement that the country lost half a million jobs in December alone is a "stark reminder" of how quickly Washington must act to revive the economy and create jobs.
Friday's labor report said unemployment in the United States increased sharply in December to 7.2 percent, the highest level in 15 years. In 2008, the U.S. was determined to have lost 2.6 million jobs - the worst annual loss since World War II.
Mr. Obama's proposed stimulus package includes tax cuts for most Americans, along with extensions of unemployment insurance and health coverage, and spending on energy, roads, schools and health care.
Many Republicans have expressed concern about the plan, which aides to the president-elect say could cost $775 billion.
By VOA News.
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