On the same day that the Labor Department announced the latest set of jobless figures, Barack Obama held a jobs conference at the White House. The jobless figures were favorable, with new claims showing the lowest numbers in over a year.
The conference hosted leading business and union leaders as well as academics. The forum began with remarks by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. She called the current U.S. unemployment rate of 10.2 percent "a stark reminder of how much we have to do." She added that the administration "will not rest" until it had succeeded in creating jobs.
Following Solis was Vice-President Joe Biden. Typically, Biden was a bit "different" in his message, showing a more bleak picture of the economy than the Obama administration would probably have liked. He said, using an old Reagan yarn, that people see a problem as merely a downturn when a stranger is out of work and a recession if it's a relative who is unemployed, but a depression if they lose a job themselves. "And it is a depression" for the nation's more than 10 million unemployed, he added.
After an initial set of remarks, those invited broke into different working groups to brainstorm with administration officials. Those officials included Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The obvious question would be if anything substantive came out of the focus groups. The answer to that will take some time. However, the president said there were some ideas that could be put to work almost immediately. Meanwhile, other ideas would need to become part of legislation for Congress to consider.
As he wrapped up the conference, Obama made a statement that is obvious to those out of work. He said, "This has been a tough year, with a lot of uncertainty. There's no question that it's difficult out there right now."
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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