at an economy now with, you know, a minimum of 10% official unemployment and when you look at underemployment, it's 20. so the job creation for people who work on the network, number one. number two, the job creation, the spin-offs of, you know, catching up in terms of the world economy and the economic development that goes along with it. to the extent we're worried, which obviously we are, about job flight out of the u.s., about folks in the u.s. turning into consumers -- you can't really be a consumer without working, at least most of us can't. so it's a combination of the two. where our members work, you know, several hundred thousand of them actually work on the network, and they're concerned about their futures. and also, i mean, we promote among our own members constant training, upgrading of skills, look to the future, don't look to the technologies of the past. so our members are really into this. when we talk about the speed matters campaign which we started in iowa because of the political interest, it was our members in iowa who sort of took it up, who met with candidates, who tal

the unemployment rate and underemployment rate is 17.3%. house holds are deleveraging. house hold debt is above what it was a decade ago. 23% of american home owners are underwater. the mortgage is valid more than the remaining value of your house. it doesn't look good. >> a lost decade? >> i don't think so, but george is right. the data look terrible. the economy is on steroids. you have a huge stimulus now. the fed is buying up mortgage-backed securities. rates are low. what happens when all of this ends? nobody knows. there's not enough demand out there because consumers are not -- >> you heard dr. romer say it can't end. >> consumers can't borrow as they did before. houses are worth 30% less than before. we're going into an economic territory that we just don't know anything about. we've never been here before. it scared everybody in this town for 2010, it's scary for the economy overall. >> can the president get congress to go along with what he wants them to do? >> i think with minimal steps. i think a lot of this, george, is psychological. the fundamental questio

so-called underemployment rate, people are unemployed the way they want to be, jump to do 17%. president obama commented on the numbers today. >> the jobs numbers that were released by the labor department this morning are a reminder that the road to recovery is never straight. that we have to continue to work every single day to get our economy moving again. for most americans and for me, that means jobs. >> now the president says he has a plan to create thousands of jobs and help the planet at the same time. this is about the white house in its new initiative. right? >> reporter: yeah, trying to seize the initiative. he acknowledged that the numbers showed the country slipped back last month on what he called his number one priority. so to appear to be seizing the initiative, the president announced in the east room today a plan to award $2.3 billion in tax credits using stimulus money to companies that are developing green technology. >> the initiative we're outlining today will likely generate 17,000 jobs and the roughly $5 billion more that will leverage in the private sec

let's start with the underemployment rate. this includes the unemployed people, those part-time workers and discouraged workers just giving up looking for work. that total figure offer seen as a more reliable gauge than just simple unemployment numbers, that's at 7.32%. up .1% in the month of november and hovering at a 15-year high. >> just compare it to for us. >> as we wait at the east room of the white house, 2009 is fully on the books. we know the economy as a whole cut 4.2 million jobs in 2009 and the average unemployment rate for the year was 9.3%. only contrast that with 5.8%, almost 4 percentage points lower and the 4.6% jobless rate we had in 2007. overall, shep, the u.s. economy lost over 8 million jobs since this great recession began two decembers ago. >> i know they're in there doing an audio check now. >> once again the president prepares to speak in the east room of the white house. we expect he's going to tout a plan to create as you mentioned tens of thousands of so-called green jobs. he's gonna use tax credit

now we have unemployment and underemployment at 17.5%, but yet goldman sachs says that it has to pay at least $16.5 billion worth of bonuses so that its own employees don't leave the firm. now goldmans seems to feel bad about this. it wants to donate $500 million to small businesses. what kind of free markets do we have when small businesses have to depend on a rich companies treating it as a hobby and order to get capital financing? but this, in fact, has not been a failure of free markets. the past 25 years are the story of what happened when government does not understand its proper role in the free markets. and that is to provide a level, predictable, consistent system of prudent regulation so that markets can discipline themselves without causing unacceptable harm and destruction to the broader economy. now we know how to do this. we did this for 50 years, more or less well, from the 1930s until the 1980s. how did we learn how to do this? we learn the lessons of the 1920s. now the '20s were wonderful, innovative decade, as amity has noted in her own work. the problem with the '2

the underemployment rate, that's when you counted everybody who is looking for a job or working part time when they want to be working full time at 17.3%. the president, as you mentioned, wants to turn the conversation back to the economy after the world has intruded with the attempted bombing on christmas day. he's talking about green jobs. he had an event yesterday, where he announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for solar -- things like solar energy, alternative energy, going some 183 companies across the united states. that comes from the stimulus package. and the administration estimate that's going to cost -- that will result in 17,000 jobs. they say with a lot of private sector partnerships and private sector capital, tens of thousands of more jobs could result. still, a drop in the bucket, but the white house and democrats hoping to turn the conversation back to all they're trying to do to turn the economy around and turn the unemployment rate around in a downward direction, alex. >> okay. mike from the white house. thanks, mike. >>> for more on the job report including an int

underemployment rate, this is the figure that they calculate where people who have doctor we -- were looking for jobs quit looking for jobs, 17.3%, that's staying steady as well. the president under considerable pressure from his democratic allies in congress to pass a second stimulus package, but they don't want to call it that, another jobs bill very politically sensitive issue as well as, of course, a matter of policy. no one wants to see the unemployment rate continue in double digits. the white house continues to say, however, they do expect positive net job growth within the first quarter of this year. the so-called jobless recovery, however, continuing for now. although there is optimism both within the white house and among economists that there is going to be some hiring done in the spring as temporary workers, a lot of businesses, alex, are hiring temporary workers. that's seen as a sign that businesses are going to start rehiring people, temporary workers being hired at a very rapid pace. >> you know, how much does this have to be the focus of this president given this is

underemployment, including people unwillingly working part-time who want full-time employment or thoseoking for work, 17.3%. total job loss in the fourth quarter just one-tenth what it was in the first quarter. brit, where are we with this economy? >> well, there has always been the chance that the economy, because the united states economy is fabulously resilient, might despite everything begin to recove and sometimes when the economy begins to recover, it takes on a certain momentum and the next thing you know we have people being hired right and left. we could have a robust recovery in process, where even if the unemployment rate hadn't come down that much, people would be convinced that we were in a recovery and there was a lot to hope for and the political weight of the downturn would be off the democratic party. these most recent job numbers that that is less likely to be so. you noted that the president is now going to make this the focus of 2010, which suggests that he didn't really make it a focus of 2009. what did he do? first, it was -- he went along with that staggeringly w

we'll start with the underemployment rate.his includes the unemployed and part-time workers seeking full-time work. and discouraged workers not looking for work. it stands at 17.2%, the's up over the montthat's upover the . we know the economy as a whole slashed 4.2 million jobs. the average was 9.3% for the year. ththe u.s. economy has lost more than 8 million jobs since this great recession began two decembers ago. trace: how do we expect the white house to spin these? >> less than an hour from now we'll be carrying it live, we expect to see the president outlining a plan to use stimulus funded tax credits, tens of thousands of green jobs, helping them becom become proficient. the white house press secretary robert gibbs said it's a reason for cautious optimism. >> we have a long way to go. if you look back as we talked about it. we knew this would be a long road. and along that road we knew there would be ups and downs and bumps along the way. i think if you look through and analyze some of the numbers, there are some brigh

we'll start with the underemployment rate, this includes the unemployed, those part-time workers seeking full-time work and discouraged workers who have more or less begin up looking for work. that total figure, often seen as a more reliable gauge, now stands at 17.3%, that's up .1% over november and hovering around the 15-year high. 2009, of course, is now fully on the books and we now know the economy as a whole slashed 4.2 million jobs, the average unemployment rate for the movement was 9.3%. contrast that with 2008's 5.8%, almost four percentage points lower and the 4.6% jobless rate for 2007 overall, jon, the u.s. economy has lost more than eight million jobs since this great recession began two years ago. jon: so how can we expect the president and his aides to try to spin these numbers as all presidents and their aides do? >> well, the president as you mentioned earlier is going to be speaking about two-and-a-half hours from now there the east room. he's going to outline a plan to create, quote, tens of thousands of new so-called green technology jobs using stimulus funds. already

the so-called underemployment rate could be ameliorated a little bit by people who have been part timeworking full time and people who are working full time and are getting more hours but our forecast acknowledge that the growth in jobs again in that sort of half-speed theme is welcomed but not much more than it takes just to keep the labor force blind. -- employed. and maybe a half million more and that's why the rate doesn't go up anymore but doesn't come down very dramatically either. any last questions? i'm going to turn it back over to jim. or peter. >> thanks again for everybody for coming. both stu and some of the other members of the committee will be available for some questions. jim will be available as well. and again my cards are in your packet if you have any follow-up after today, please feel free to reach out to me. thanks. [inaudible conversations] >> today at 1:30 press secretary robert gibbs answers questions see that briefing live here on c-span2. at 2:00 pm the house gavels in for work on several bills. >> now remarks from environmental protection agency administrat