Washington: The United States has "a long way
to go" in taming its stubbornly high unemployment rate,
despite positive jobs creation news last week, top White House
economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday.
"We've got a long way to go. We've inherited a terrible
situation, the most pressing economic problems since the Great
Depression in our country," Summers told CNN television's
"State of the Union" program.
Summers called efforts to bring down the high
unemployment, which has been stuck for months at 9.7 per cent,
the "preoccupation" of President Barack Obama's
administration.
"There's a great deal we've got to do, and we've got to
do it with all of the energy that we can," Summers said.
"It is the president's preoccupation to put people back
to work," he said. "That's what the legislation he signed into
law -- to give incentives to businesses to hire people who've
been out of work -- was all about.
Summers also cited a raft of legislation in the pipeline,
to "channel credit to small business, to protect the jobs of
those on the front lines, teachers and policemen, to make
investments" -- all with an eye towards job creation.
He told ABC television's "This Week" program, meanwhile,
that after months of grinding recession and a stalled
unemployment rate, he "expects the trend to be upwards" in the
US economy.
But Summers suggested the path toward economy recovery
may not be smooth, warning that "the numbers could fluctuate."
His remarks came after the US government released figures
last week showed that the recession-wracked American economy
may be turning a corner, creating 162,000 jobs in March, the
biggest increase in three years.
Last week's upbeat economic news was tempered however by
sobering data showing that the number of people who have not
worked in more than six months rose by 414,000 in March, to
6.5 million people.
The US Labour Department also said Friday that the job
growth was not enough to budge the unemployment rate from 9.7
per cent.
Since the recession began in December 2007, around eight
million Americans have lost their jobs. Some 15 million
Americans remain unemployed.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, April 04, 2010, 23:33