Obama braces for more job losses

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy may have retreated from its recessionary abyss, but progress on employment will continue to lag, President Barack Obama said Monday.

"We have pulled the economy back from the brink," Obama said during a White House meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. "We've got a long way to go. ... We anticipate that we're going to continue to see some job losses in the weeks and months to come."

Given the severity of the job losses occurring when 2009 began, Obama said the need to make up those losses "is going to require I think some bold, innovative action on our part and on Congress's part and on the private sector's part."

Obama didn't outline the type of innovative action needed, noting that Congress likely would begin discussions on potential tax cuts and credits that could make some difference in hiring this week, "but we want to go beyond just tax policy."

Sustained economic growth is "going to require that we look at new models for where future growth is going to come from, because one of the I think key understandings coming out of this past financial crisis is that a lot of our growth was debt-driven," Obama said. "The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels."