WASHINGTON — November 2, 2009 - President Barack Obama said Monday that the US economy will continue to lose jobs in coming months despite exiting a recession, striking a cautious tone on unemployment.
"We anticipate that we're going to continue to see some job losses in the weeks and months to come," Obama said ahead of the release of unemployment figures for October on Friday.
Economic indicators released last week indicated that the United States exited its recession this summer, but Obama emphasized that there is usually a lag time of several months before businesses resume hiring.
Unemployment hit 9.8 percent in September, the highest level since 1983. Economists believe the figure will exceed 10 percent and remain high well into 2010.
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the US economy could start creating jobs in the first quarter of 2010.
At a meeting of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board at the White House on Monday, Obama stressed that the actions taken by his government had "helped to stem what could have been a disastrous situation for the economy," adding that "we are starting to see stabilization and indeed some improvement."
But he acknowledged that "we are still seeing production levels that are significantly below peak levels. And most distressing is the fact that job growth continues to lag."
Obama said that "bold, innovative action" to fight unemployment would be an "overriding focus" for his administration, and he called on both Congress and the private sector to help.
He said he would discuss with the board "new models for where future job growth is going to come from," based on exports, production and investments in "green" jobs.
