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Congress to underscore the urgency of job creation, a week after the
unemployment rate hit a 26- year high of 9.8 percent. The
administration and Democratic leaders are reportedly considering a
range of measures, including giving employers a tax credit for
creating new positions, as fears mount of a " jobless recovery" when
growth resumes. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi,
the speaker of the House of Representatives, said the meeting in the
Oval Office was dedicated to seeking ways to promote job growth amid
the deepest recession for generations. "Today's meeting with the
president reinforces our shared commitment to creating more jobs and
providing relief to the millions of Americans who are out of work,"
Reid said in a statement. "We also need to think about creative,
innovative ways to encourage businesses to create new jobs and we're
committed to working with the president to do that." Pelosi said the
meeting was a sign the US government was united in the goal of
getting Americans back to work. "Congress stands ready to partner
with the White House to keep our economy moving in the right
direction and lay the foundation for growth long into the future,"
Pelosi said. A senior Obama aide said the meeting focused on the
"success" of Obama's 787 billion dollar economic stimulus program,
which the administration says has staved off even worse carnage on
the jobs market. The official said the talks also considered the
possibility of extending unemployment benefit programs which will
soon expire and " the many ways that we can work together to continue
to save and create jobs in the future." White House spokesman Robert
Gibbs however declined to go into detail about the tax credits
proposal, or other measures that the administration was considering
to fire up job creation. In a blow to hopes of imminent recovery, new
Labor Department figures last Friday showed job losses accelerated to
263 ,000 in September, pushing the unemployment rate to a new 26-
year high of 9.8 percent. In a first reaction, Obama called the jobs
report "sobering" and a sign that the economic recovery expected to
begin in the last quarter of this year would need to be ground out
step by step.
