Obama: Jobs Report Is "Cause for Hope"
Updated 1:48 p.m. ET
President Barack Obama says an unexpected drop in the unemployment rate is "cause for hope but not celebration."
Speaking Friday at a small business in a Washington suburb, Obama took care not to trumpet the gains outlined in the new government report too loudly.
He said the data shows modest progress toward "climbing out of the huge hole that we found ourselves in." But he said that "far too many of our neighbors and friends and family are still unemployed," requiring much additional work to bring the economy back.
Obama also cautioned against reading too much into the single report. He said that "these numbers will continue to fluctuate for months to come."
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Seeking to create more jobs, Obama also asked Congress to temporarily expand two lending programs for the owners of small businesses. He said he wanted to bolster the impact of the businesses that are the chief creators of new jobs in a struggling economy.
Obama said he wants businesses to be able to refinance their commercial real estate loans under the Small Business Administration and he wants that government agency to increase loans used for lines of credit and capital.
"The truth is, the economy can be growing like gangbusters for years on end and it's still not easy to run a small business," Obama said as he visited a heating and air conditioning company in a Maryland suburb of the capital.
He reminded reporters that every once in a while, a small business becomes a large corporation that employs thousands.
The White House said Obama's plan would temporarily increase the cap on Small Business Administration Express loans from the current maximum of $350,000 to $1 million. Obama's plan would also expand the SBA's program to support refinancing for owner-occupied commercial real-estate loans.
To be eligible, business owners must have first mortgages and be current on all loan payments for the previous year. The White House said the proposal would help refinance up to $18.7 billion each year in commercial real estate that might otherwise be foreclosed and liquidated.
The move, however, requires Congress to act — something of an open question, given that Democrats lost their supermajority only a day earlier when Republican Sen. Scott Brown took office to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
"What I hope, what I strongly urge is that we work quickly and that we work together to get this done," Obama said.
Obama wants to send $30 billion from the bank bailout program to community banks for lending to small businesses that need loans to increase their output and hire additional workers.
The president has also proposed eliminating capital gains taxes on small businesses in 2010 and giving small businesses a $5,000 tax credit for every new job created.