Jobs

By Kate Andersen Brower and Roger Runningen June 18 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama pivoted from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill back to the economy today with an emphasis on the jobs created by his administration’s $862 billion economic stimulus package. At a groundbreaking in Columbus, Ohio, for the 10,000th road project funded by the stimulus, Obama said improving the nation’s infrastructure is one of the keys to long-term prosperity. “If we’re going to rebuild America’s economy, then we’ve got to rebuild America, period, from the ports and the airways that ship our goods, to the roads and transit systems that move our workers and connect cities and businesses,” Obama said at the project site near the Nationwide Children’s Hospital . The president is seeking to remind voters of his efforts to revive the economy five months ahead November’s midterm elections. Republicans have criticized the stimulus legislation as a wasteful spending program that hasn’t fulfilled the administration’s promises on job creation. Unemployment in Ohio is 10.7 percent, one percentage point higher than the national average. While the Federal Reserve’s regional business survey showed last week that the economy expanded in all the central bank’s districts in April and May for the first time in more than two years, job growth has lagged. Initial jobless claims increased by 12,000 to 472,000 in the week ended June 12, Labor Department figures showed yesterday. ‘Summer of Recovery’ “The economy is still lousy,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters before today’s trip. “We want to put the message out: This is going to be the summer of recovery.” LaHood, who traveled with the president to Ohio, said the project being highlighted today is expected to create more than 300 new jobs and is one of 462 transportation projects in Ohio funded by $1.1 billion in stimulus money. The work being done under the stimulus will “pay dividends to our communities for generations to come,” Obama said. “While the recovery may start with projects like this it can’t end here.” In a report to the president released yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden said the government has spent $620 billion from the stimulus and created or saved between 2.2 million and 2.8 million jobs. He predicted jobs created or retained by the end of 2010 will number “at least” 3.5 million. Republican Critics “We have created over 17,000 jobs in the last month” in Ohio, Republican state auditor Mary Taylor , a candidate for lieutenant governor, told reporters on a conference call today before Obama arrived. “But it’s an important fact to note that 16,800 of those jobs created were government jobs.” The White House is kicking off a six-week focus on scores of public works projects under way across the nation and into the election season. “This summer a lot more people are going to be working on highways, building clean water projects, weatherizing homes, and — and they’ll be drawing paychecks that they wouldn’t have otherwise drawn,” Biden said at a briefing yesterday that was part of the administration’s focus on the stimulus. The economy will be a top issue in the November elections that will determine which party controls the House and Senate. The Columbus area is represented in the House by freshman Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy . She was elected in 2008, the first Democrat to represent the district since 1982, according to the Almanac of American Politics. The non-partisan Cook Political Report rates her race against Republican former state Senator Steve Stivers as a toss-up. “There’s a feeling of disenchantment, disillusionment, discouragement — a feeling that no politician is going to be able to do much to turn the situation around,” Paul Beck , a political science professor at Ohio State University in Columbus, said of voter sentiment in the state. “Until the private sector really turns around you’re not going to have a big surge of jobs,” said Beck. Still, Beck said, “the stimulus money has been very important to Ohio, it’s prevented wrenching cutbacks in Ohio.” To contact the reporters on this story: Kate Andersen Brower in Columbus, Ohio at kandersen7@bloomberg.net ; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net