Obama on jobs

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama scheduled a speech for Tuesday to give details of his plan to help the U.S. economy create jobs.

Obama had a "jobs summit" at the White House last week. Now he will speak at the Brookings Institution where he is expected to push for jobs creation through loans to small businesses, finding additional "shovel-ready projects" to fund with federal dollars and additional financial help for states.

The U.S. economy has lost more than 7 million jobs over the last two years. Stated unemployment is at 10 percent, with the actual rate, factoring in those who have given up looking for work, estimated at 17-18 percent. Dropouts along with job seekers are said to be behind last month's drop in the unemployment rate.

But the economy lost a relatively small 11,000 jobs in November and the October job-loss figure was adjusted down, giving a twinkling of light at the end of the jobless-recovery tunnel.

To fund his ideas, Obama may try to turn using leftover Troubled Asset Relief Program monies. The TARP legislation doesn't explicitly allow for such a diversion -- the $700 billion was meant for financial institution help -- so it will take some repositioning and rereading of the law to make any such change.