11/2/2009 4:56 PM
ET
(RTTNews) -
President Barack Obama turned to some of the nation's top business leaders Monday for ideas about how to generate more jobs during the economic recovery.
Obama, meeting with the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which includes General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt and Oracle (ORCL) President Charles E. Phillips, said that while there were signs of economic recovery, he would not be pleased until the economy starts generating jobs.
"We just are not where we need to be yet," Obama said. "We've got a long way to go. 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 noted that it is common for job growth to lag in an economy coming out of recession.
"But given the severity of the job losses that took place at the beginning of the year and the need for us to make up a whole lot of job loss, [it] is going to require I think some bold, innovative action on our part and on Congress's part and on the private sector's part," he said.
Obama said he also wanted to consider the possibility that the source of new growth for the future won't likely be the spending of American consumers financed by debt.
"Consumers I think wisely recognized that they can't get that overextended any more and businesses are going to be more cautious in terms of how they approach taking on a lot of debt," he said. "The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels."
He added, "So one of our challenges now, and I've been speaking about this for many months now, is how do we get what I call a post-bubble growth model, one that is sustainable?"
Congress is set to start its own efforts soon by considering some tax cuts and credits that are aimed at spurring job growth, but Obama said he wanted to consider policies that would spur more growth in the private sector.
"We've got experts from a wide range of business sectors, and what we're going to talk about is, are there mechanisms that we can start putting in place where we see the kind of growth that used to characterize the U.S. economy -- export-driven growth, manufacturing growth, growth that pays high wages and provides high living standards for a broad-based middle class," he said.
He added, "This is my administration's overriding focus. Having brought the economy back from the brink, the question is how are we going to make sure that people are getting back to work and able to support their families."
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