White House braces jobless for slow rebound

April 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Buoyed by good news on the jobs front, the White House claimed credit Sunday for reversing the downward economic spiral while bracing out-of-work Americans for a slow recovery.

The Obama administration also eased away from confrontation with China over its artificially low currency. The U.S. wants to encourage Beijing’s help on nuclear proliferation and new penalties against Iran for its perceived attempts to build a bomb.

Given the depth and length of the recession, the White House wants to cool expectations of a rapid economic recovery before the November elections that will determine whether Democrats retain control of the House and Senate.

The administration’s line is that there’s steady, if slow, progress in repairing the economic ruin President Barack Obama repeatedly blames on his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.

The economy added about 162,000 jobs in March, the most in nearly three years. A large percentage of the gains were temporary census workers hired by the federal government, and the unemployment rate held firm at 9.7 percent. The additional 123,000 private-sector jobs were the most since May 2007.

The economy is growing again, but at a pace unlikely to quickly replace the 8.4 million jobs erased in the recession that began in late 2007. More than 11 million people are drawing unemployment-insurance benefits.

Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said consumers still face “a lot of head winds” from the financial crisis. For example, debt and credit difficulties are hampering stronger job growth.

She was echoing the words of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who said last week the administration was “very worried” about returning to a more normal jobless rate of around 5 percent.