Solis says Labor Department has work to do

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said monthly job losses had been cut in half since January and that stimulus spending was on track to create more jobs.

"We came in with well over 700,000 people who had lost their jobs," Solis said during a CNN interview Friday. "Now it's been almost cut in half, but that's still not good enough. The president and I are not satisfied with seeing one job lost," she said.

The Labor Department said Friday that job losses fell to 247,000 in July and the unemployment rate, contrary to expectations, had improved from 9.5 percent to 9.4 percent.

President Obama was scheduled to speak to the new labor figures in the early afternoon.

Solis encouraged workers to go for "green jobs," and for work in information technology and healthcare.

"We also know that one-third of the stimulus money has actually gone out. So we still have two-thirds more of that money going out for infrastructure project development, research and development, new technologies and ... other ... employment opportunities that will be coming," she said.