American businesses have created 9.2 million new jobs in the last 50 months, said US President Barack Obama on 3 May, while delivering his weekly address at the White House. The President criticized the Republicans in Congress for trying to block serious ideas to create jobs and strengthen the middle class.
"My number one priority as President is doing whatever I can to create more jobs and opportunity for hardworking families. And yesterday, we learned that businesses added 273,000 jobs last month," Obama said.
Obama underlined the need of creating more jobs and give middle class families a sense of security.
The Republicans in Congress have said "no" to raising the minimum wage, "no" to equal pay for equal work, and "no" to restoring the unemployment insurance they let expire for more than two million Americans looking for a new job, Obama pointed out.
"That's why, in my State of the Union Address, I said that in this Year of Action, whenever I can act on my own to create jobs and expand opportunity for more Americans, I will. And since January, I've taken more than 20 executive actions to do just that," the President said.
Obama said that he has launched new hubs to help attract more high-tech manufacturing jobs to America, and ordered a reform of job training programmes to make sure more Americans earn the skills that employers need right now.
"I've brought together business leaders to help us connect more classrooms to high-speed internet, and give more of the long-term unemployed a better shot at finding a job," he added.
Obama vowed to continue taking action on his own wherever possible but underscored that much more progress could be made if Republicans in Congress were less interested in stacking the deck in favor of those at the top, and more interested in expanding opportunity for all.
(Ed: VP)
