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Stimulus will deliver '600,000 new jobs'

UNITED States President Barack Obama promised yesterday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his US$787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs.

Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as his advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will stem a continuing rise in the nation's unemployment.

Many of the stimulus plans that Obama announced yesterday were already in the works, including hundreds of maintenance projects at military bases, about 1,600 state road and airport improvements, and federal money budgeted for 135,000 teachers, principals and school staff.

The US administration had always viewed the summer as a peak for stimulus spending, as better weather permitted more public works construction and federal agencies had processed requests.

But Obama now promises an accelerated pace of federal spending over the next few months to boost the economy and produce jobs.

"We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way," Obama said in a written statement prepared for his public announcement of the additional summer stimulus activity.

"Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid, we're going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around," the statement said.

The announcement comes days after the government reported that the number of unemployed continues to rise; the unemployment rate now sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. Hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to lose jobs each month, although fewer jobs were lost last month than expected.

Obama has claimed as many as 150,000 jobs have been saved or created by his stimulus plan so far.





 

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