Romer: Recovery to be export fueled

WASHINGTON, April 4 (UPI) -- The chairwoman of U.S. President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers said Sunday she expects more job growth after a solid gain in March.

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Christina Romer said the 162,000 jobs created last month, while fueled by 48,000 temporary U.S. Census jobs, indicates "we certainly had positive job growth."

"We've now crossed the zero line and are positive," she said. "Yes, I anticipate we're going to continue to see positive job growth as we go forward."

Despite unemployment still lingering near 10 percent, she called it a "great sign" that the U.S. labor force has grown by a million people in the past three months because it indicates people who may have quit job hunting are now back looking for work as the economy improves.

She also defended the administration against criticism of stimulus spending so far, saying "it has done exactly what we said it would do," which was to save or create about 3.5 million jobs. "It's absolutely on track to do that," she said.

Romer said she thinks the United States will experience "a different kind" of economic recovery from this recession.

"I think it's not going to be one where consumers come roaring back as the engine of growth," she said. "It's going to need to come from our exports. That's why the president has been pushing his export initiative. It's going to need to come from business investment. And that's why measures like a zero capital gains for small businesses, or tax incentives for investment, I thin those are the right policies to make sure we get a healthy growth going forward."