Saying he wants to do more encourage job creation and increase exports, President Obama today established a Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Obama said the panel, which will be chaired by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, will "focus its work on finding new ways to encourage the private sector to hire and invest in American competitiveness.''
He said he wants to focus on policies that will encourage innovation and continue to increase exports.
Immelt, a Republican who has been the top executive at General Electric since 2001, has been a key outside adviser to Obama during his presidency. Immelt was a member of the Economy Recovery Advisory Board, which is being abolished and replaced by the new council.
Obama announced Immelt's appointment after touring a GE plant in Schenectady, N.Y., where the company was founded.
"It is possible to be a competitive global enterprise and still care about your home," Immelt wrote in an op-ed in today's Washington Post. "Persistent and high unemployment - and the pessimism it breeds - should not be accepted. We must work together to construct an economy that creates more opportunity for more people."
