March 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said today’s reports on unemployment and payrolls show the measures the government is taking to spur hiring are working, and he called on Congress to extend aid to the unemployed.
While job losses were less than expected, they are “more than we should tolerate,” Obama said following a report by the Labor Department that the U.S. unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February and payrolls fell less than forecast.
Obama spoke at the Arlington, Virginia, headquarters of Opower, a company that develops software for utility companies to cut energy use by helping customers find ways to increase efficiency. Obama has been promoting initiatives aimed at creating jobs in sectors of the energy industry focused on clean sources of power and increasing efficiency.
Opower employs 75 people, doubling its size in the last year, according to information provided by the administration. The company plans to add up to 100 workers this year.
“This is a model of what we want to be seeing all across the country,” Obama said. Clean energy development will help the U.S. maintain its global economic leadership, he said.
Energy and Jobs
Obama has said energy development, education and cutting health-care costs are three central elements of his plan to put the U.S. economy on firmer footing. He cited administration efforts to “support a thriving clean-energy industry,” including a $6 billion incentive program to increase home energy efficiency.
“The country that leads in clean energy and energy efficiency today, I’m absolutely convinced, is going to lead the global economy tomorrow,” he said. “I want that country to be the United States of America.”
Payrolls dropped by 36,000 last month after a 26,000 decrease in January. They were forecast to decrease by 68,000, according to the median estimate of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The president credited initiatives such as the $862 billion stimulus legislation passed last year with helping the economy emerge from the worst recession since the 1930s. Still, the administration has forecast unemployment will average more than 9 percent this year, and Obama called for a longer extension of unemployment insurance. Obama this week signed a bill extending those benefits for a month.
“It’s only a temporary step,” Obama said. “That’s why I’m calling on Congress to extend this relief through the end of the year.”
Republican lawmakers have been critical of the stimulus, saying it hasn’t created as many jobs as promised and the spending has contributed to the deficit, which is forecast to hit a record $1.6 trillion this year.
