President Barack Obama invited 130 business leaders to the White House Thursday for a much-publicized jobs summit to help jump-start employment opportunities for many Americans who are struggling to survive.  

The afternoon meeting, which also included union leaders, mayors and educators, was designed to discuss innovative ideas to create jobs for millions of Americans during an unprecedented economic crisis.

Obama’s jobs summit comes as the nation's unemployment rate has climbed to 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983. Some 15 million Americans are out of work. The average jobless worker has been unemployed for more than six months.

“With one in 10 Americans out of work and millions more underemployed, not having enough hours to support themselves, this is a struggle that cuts deep, and it touches people across this nation,” Obama said Thursday at the opening of the summit.

“I'm looking for specific recommendations that can be implemented that will spur on job growth as quickly as possible,” he said.

Valerie Jarrett, a senior White House advisor and Obama confidant, said Obama assembled a range of experts Thursday to make recommendations to the president’s economic team.

“He’s determined to do everything in his power to bring down the unemployment rate,” Jarrett told BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday.   

The jobs summit, Jarrett said, is part of Obama’s ongoing plan to address the economic crisis after he brought the economy back “from the brink of disaster.”

She said African-Americans and people of color will benefit from Obama’s plan to turn the economy around. 

“Far too many people who want to work cannot find jobs,” Jarrett said.

Black men have been disproportionately hard hit by the nation’s economic crisis. Black men between 16 and 24 years old are experiencing a staggering 34.5 percent unemployment rate, according to federal figures released last month.

The immediate benefits of the economic stimulus passed by Congress earlier this year appear to be fading. The recession may be over, but analysts say many of the jobs lost in the downturn probably will not return, and high unemployment is likely to continue.

Obama told the summit’s participants that his critics are lining up.

“I assure you there is extraordinary skepticism that any discussions like this can actually produce results,” Obama said. “I'm well aware of that. I don't mind skepticism. If I listened to the skeptics, I wouldn't be here. But I am confident that we'll make progress.”

Indeed, Republicans said Obama’s job summit was nothing more than political grandstanding – long on pageantry and short on substance.

“This White House jobs summit is just another example of President Obama’s PR presidency, where he stages photo-ops and events to distract citizens and the media from his administration’s failures,” Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement Thursday.

“President Obama should put an end to his PR tactics, stop spreading his made-up 'save or created' talking points, and start working with Republicans on common-sense conservative solutions that have been proven to create jobs,” Steele said.  

The media also weighed in with harsh criticism of Thursday’s jobs summit.

“The timing is twofold, and painfully transparent: Hosting a high-profile gathering will allow the White House to portray an engaged Obama at a time when polls show the public believes his domestic agenda is in a hole,” according to The New York Daily News.

“More importantly, the summit gives Obama a desperately needed distraction - especially during the holidays when the unemployed are acutely aware of their situation,” the newspaper reported.

In October, Obama announced that his administration either “saved or created” nearly 650,000 jobs under his economic stimulus plan, an achievement Republicans said was fabricated.

Asked about the skeptics, Jarrett offered a swift response.

“To those who are critical, I would ask 'where are your ideas?’” she said. “Don’t sit on the sidelines [criticizing]. Be engaged.”

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Reports from journalists and the Government Accountability Office last month about problems with the data on Recovery.gov cast doubt on the site’s claim that more than 640,000 jobs had been created or saved by the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
http://factcheck.org/2009/12/stimulus-jobs-re-revisited/

by   
Uforje
December 4, 2009, 1:51 pm
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WhatYOUDON’Tthink: I have owned & operated my company for 12 years (entrepreneur). I didn’t hide money from Bush’s misuse of American taxes by using them to finance his private war against Hussein (who was only a thorn to the BCS). I certainly see no need to hide ANYTHING from the Obama administration; they're undertaking to get this country back on a course that is responsive to ALL of its citizens, as opposed to just being concerned about the ruling class.

by   
Sevennotrump
December 4, 2009, 12:16 pm
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I guess "no bid" contracts have nothing to do with creating jobs... Right?

by   
Dopamine
December 4, 2009, 11:38 am
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Folks, generally speaking, gov doesn't create jobs beyond that required to operate (shouldn’t anyway), entrepreneurs do. Governments create environments that either helps spur risks taking; or stifle it. Obama's efforts so far, and the track he is on, stifle it. Entrepreneurs can invest their money, hide it from gov confiscation, or turn it over to the gov to waste. If you where entrepreneur, what would you do? Try getting out of the way of the people Obama, let risk takers rise and fall on their own; stop with the redistributive agenda and watch the unemployment rate number shrink.

by   
WhatIThink
December 4, 2009, 10:00 am
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“To those who are critical, I would ask 'where are your ideas?’” she said. “Don’t sit on the sidelines; Be engaged.” V. Jarrett. Wow!!; could you be any more disingenuous?Those with ideas counter to Obama and his ilk where not invited.Employing the same playbook used in healthcare debate, they promote openness to ALL ideas, ignore opposing ideas, label them critics and claim no ideas submitted. Chamber of Commerce; National Federation of Independent Business; conservative economist-generally opposed to big government–not invited. Coincidentally, they also oppose gov takeover of healthcare.

by   
WhatIThink
December 4, 2009, 9:52 am
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i believe that the president will create jobs for the many unemployed people in this country

by   
Spercy
December 4, 2009, 9:20 am
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@UT-I think a better world requires revolutionary economic change, political change, cultural change, change in relationships between ethnic groups, and change in gender and kinship relationships. You're not just an annoying crackpot. You're actually in the way of those laudable goals, by putting fuel on the fire of white nationalists who argue with exactly your logic, and by obscuring the true source of colonialism and economic deprivation: Imperialism, statism and capitalism. Not white people. Get out of the way.

by   
Wth
December 4, 2009, 9:17 am
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Uncle Tom sounds like you think you know the numbers so you need to run for presidency.Smart people dumb is not in there vocabulary so you just gave the meaning of dumb.So uncletom move to third world country because in poor countries rich people dont live long and you better have you body guards.Bye move trust me you want be miss

by   
Trdaye
December 4, 2009, 9:06 am
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Republicans talk about common-sense I guess thats why common-sesne got the Americans in this bull-shit..The white gonna keep on until this be a third world country. Only been in for about ten months and people think that he suppose to clear this bull-sh** up over nite. Need to go and get The Clints and the bushes and make them clear all this mess they create.The President Obama is doing just as good as any other president.Or course he is a black man and the white people wants to blame someone and it will be Mr Obama.

by   
Trdaye
December 4, 2009, 8:59 am
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@UT-Ignorance is bliss my friend. Please stop cut and pasting from Glenn Beck's website. It would be refreshing just once if you had your OWN opinion....so sad :(

by   
Wth
December 4, 2009, 8:56 am
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@Rvstokes:I won't have to move to a 3rd world country, Obama is doing an excellent job turning America into one. And specifically, what has Obama corrected that Bush messed up...hmmm? Do you remember when BHO coerced Congress to pass the 787 Billion dollar stimulus to keep unemployment from reaching 8%? It didn't work. Do your remember BHO coercing congress to pass the 1Trillion dollar TARP to stave foreclosures...hmmm? It didn't work? Do you remember the multi billion dollar auto bailout to save the auto industry..hmmm? It didn't work.

by   
Uncletom
December 4, 2009, 8:23 am
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UNCLETOM - PRESIDENT OBAMA IS NOT AS STUPID AS YOU THINK. I TAKE IT YOU WORK AT 7-11 CORRECT? IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU WHO NEED TO MOVE TO A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY AND SEE HOW THAT WILL WORK. YOU NEED TO GIVE THIS MAN A CHANCE. HE'S BEEN IN THE OFFICE LESS THAN A YEAR AND HE HAS CORRECTED MORE BUSH-MESS THAN ANYONE KNOWS. GET A LIFE AND ACCEPT THE FACT THAT A BLACK MAN IS RUNNING YOUR COUNTRY

by   
Rvstokes
December 4, 2009, 6:50 am
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Obama is dumb but he is not stupid. He knows that the unemployment figures will be published today and the news probably won't be good. So he holds the phony jobs summit to make people THINK he's concerned, especially the black liberal suckers who are his biggest supporters. Why can't he explain why the stimulus that he passed is NOT working.?

by   
Uncletom
December 4, 2009, 5:46 am
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