In a Friday press conference at the White House, President Barack Obama told reporters that “the private sector is doing fine.”
“We’ve created 4.3 million jobs over the past 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government,” said Obama.
The president also said that “if Republicans want to be helpful” they should “be thinking about [how to] help state and local governments.”
Obama re-pitched his jobs plan that stalled in Congress last year, which would have provided state and local governments with federal funds to hire teachers, firefighters and police officers.
The current national unemployment rate is 8.2 percent.