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 The Stimulus Is Working: We're Definitely Headed Toward 10% - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 7/2/09 — Friday, July 03, 2009 —  Q President Obama announced on June 8 that the administration was accelerating stimulus spending to save or create 600,000 jobs. The U.S. economy lost 467,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate went up to 9.5 percent. I just wondered what's the President's reaction to the higher unemployment rate, and are you concerned that the economy is losing steam faster than the Recovery Act can help it?MR. GIBBS: Well, let me take that question and address it on a couple of different levels. I think you saw the President already say today, and he'll say it again later today, that obviously he's deeply disappointed by the continued job loss in our economy. Continuing to lose jobs is something that he and the administration are working to address. Understand that it has been 549 days since we have been in a month that has seen a net positive job creation. I think -- though the President remains deeply concerned that we are losing jobs month to month, I do think if you look at some -- if you step back and look at the numbers through a quarterly basis, or as the Bureau of Labor Statistics did today, they looked at -- from November of 2008 through I believe March of 2009 -- the average job loss for those months approached 700,000. In the most previous quarter, that job loss averaged 436,000. So I think there is a sense that the beginnings of stabilization are taking hold and hopefully the worst job loss is behind us. You all heard me say the second time I walked into this room that it was likely to get worse before it was going to get better. I don't think anybody believed, and we certainly never said, that a recovery plan in and of itself would solve our economic problems or that after only a hundred-some days it would turn an economy, as I said, that's been in the worst financial shape that we've seen it in since the Great Depression. I do think there's obviously evidence that the recovery plan is working. Last month personal incomes were up as a result of the recovery plan. But I think you'll hear the President say later today that he sees this economy through the eyes of the American people, and obviously the American people are continuing to hurt. Q Does the government think it's doing everything it can do at this point to -- MR. GIBBS: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there's -- again, there's money in the recovery plan to deal with -- health and education money to states to plug those holes. But understand that the recovery is just one aspect of it, as we've talked about. There is financial stabilization. There's housing that you have to be -- there's a whole host of issues that the President and the administration are focused on in order to turn the economy around. Q So, again, just to follow up on that, is the message to the American people that the recovery, the stimulus, are working, just be patient? MR. GIBBS: Well, our message is we didn't get into this problem overnight, as the American people understand, and it's not likely we're going to get out of this economic problem overnight. We've said that repeatedly. I said this weekend last we think unemployment will continue to grow. We do see some less negative trends in the way unemployment is going, understanding we've still got quite some ways to go. Q At what point would that be? I mean, when is it no longer overnight? MR. GIBBS: When is what no longer overnight? Q You said we didn't get into this problem overnight; we're not going to get out of it overnight. MR. GIBBS: Right. Again -- Q So how long can you still say "overnight"? What's the time that we're talking here? MR. GIBBS: I think this is going to take some time. I think it's going to take months and months. I think we've said that from the very beginning. This is not, again, something that -- remember, the last month in which we created -- we net created jobs in this economy was December 2007. So we understand that in his -- we are in the deepest recession since World War II, and the worst financial crisis, when you take into account the markets and housing, since the Great Depression. That's going to take some time. But I think there certainly is credible evidence -- there's 1,900 construction projects that are in progress. There are -- there's $160 billion in recovery money that's been obligated to this point. And that's going to make a difference. [...] Yes, ma'am. Q Robert, just to follow on what Dan was saying earlier. Yesterday the President, at the health care forum, said the stimulus has done its job. Are we to take that as an indication that the President thinks the stimulus is working? MR. GIBBS: The stimulus is working. The stimulus plan is injecting money into the economy. The stimulus plan has obligated $160 billion to deal with the dip in the amount of growth. The stimulus plan is creating 1,900 road and construction projects. I think you'll hear the President say today, as he's said each and every day of his administration, that we've got a long way to go, that he's not going to be satisfied until we see positive job growth, positive economic growth, and that's going to take some time. Q Well, is it working fast enough? MR. GIBBS: Well, again, this was a program over the course of -- spend out I think 75 to 80 percent of the money over the course of two fiscal years, to do so in a way that's transparent, to do so in a way that's accountable -- which is what has happened in this piece of legislation. And it's just going to take some time. We understand that. Again, the President sees this through the eyes of the American people. The American people are hurting. More and more people are losing their jobs, they're losing their health care, they're losing their hope and their opportunity. And that's what the President is focused on each and every day. Q But the message seems to be, well, just wait, it's coming, it's coming. MR. GIBBS: Well, Yunji, again, let's look at in the second quarter of 2008 -- we just finished the second quarter of 2009 -- in the three-month average, we were losing 153,000 jobs a month. This past quarter it's 436,000 -- because that trend line shows that in the third quarter we went from averaging 153,000 a month in that quarter to 208,000; in the fourth quarter of 2008, we had gone to 553,000 jobs a month. In the first quarter of 2009, we were almost at 700,000 jobs lost a month, including a January number, 741,000 jobs lost, which is the greatest one-month total in the history of our country. That is not something that's going to turn around overnight. The American people understand that. The President understands that. That's why we've taken important steps to get the economy moving again. Is it going to take some time? Absolutely. Is the President impatient for results? You heard him say that last week when you all had a chance to ask him questions about our economy. [...] Peter. Q Robert, you said that hopefully the worst job losses are behind us. Do you still believe that unemployment is going to hit 10 percent sometime this year? MR. GIBBS: Absolutely. We went from 9.4 to 9.5. It may not be next month, but I would assume in the next two to three months I think it's quite clear that we'll hit that number. Again -- and as we talked about earlier, you've got to create about 150,000 jobs a month simply to have the rate stay at the level that it was the previous month. So, yes, I think we're headed -- we're definitely headed toward 10 percent. Q So it'll be a while before the country crosses the threshold of having these job losses end at these levels. MR. GIBBS: I'm sorry? Q It'll be a while, then, yet -- past that before the country passes its threshold where you have these job losses at these levels that we're seeing. MR. GIBBS: Yes, look, I think we're going to continue to -- as we talked about yesterday, employment and unemployment are -- tend to be one of the last things that improve in an economic downturn -- again, understanding the recession we're in is statistically the worst since World War II. Adding in the financial situation, obviously this is the worst economic crisis that our country has dealt with since the Depression. Ensuring that financial stabilization happens, ensuring that small businesses are free to borrow, consumer confidence goes up, people begin to spend money -- a lot of those things are going to have to happen until businesses feel confident enough that we are out of the woods to begin to hire more people. I think that's what you're going to see happen -- businesses having to make those decisions over the course of many months or year. Economy | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | Stimulus Package | Unemployment | White House Press Corps Labels: Economy, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, Stimulus Package, Unemployment, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 11:04:00 PM
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