President Barack Obama says he’s organizing a wide-ranging White House jobs summit to “talk about how we can work together” to create jobs. Obama says a report today showing fewer claims for jobless benefits is “a hopeful sign” but he also says finding jobs for the millions without them remains one of his administration’s greatest challenges. New claims for unemployment insurance fell more than expected last week, evidence the job market is slowly healing as the economy recovers. The Labor Department says first-time claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 502,000 from an upwardly revised 514,000 the previous week. That’s the fewest claims since the week ending Jan. 3, and below economists’ estimates.
The president says people “are desperately searching for work” and the government has “an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to get people back to work. Obama says the jobs summit in December will bring in experts in both the public and private sector to talk about how to get the job-creation engine running again.
