Title:
Obama Enters 2012 Race on Good News About Jobs
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
In early April, President Obama announced his plans
to seek re-election in November of next year. In an
e-mail to supporters, Mr. Obama said "the race may
not reach full speed for a year or more." But he
said the work of building the campaign "must start
today."Some of that work will depend on how many
jobs are created in the months ahead. Mr. Obama
welcomed a report that the United States economy
added two hundred sixteen thousand jobs in March.
The unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of one
percent for the second straight month. The
unemployment rate edged down to 8.8 percent, the
lowest in two years. And some economists say this
spring may be the start of better news to come.
Consumer spending has been increasing.Stephen Hess
is a political scientist who studies the presidency
at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He says,
"The next election will, more than anything else,
depend on employment in the United States."Labor
Secretary Hilda Solis pointed out that the economy
has added jobs for twelve months in a row. She says
the economy has added a million and a half private
sector jobs. But, she added, "we need to continue to
not lose sight of where we need to go to increase
opportunities for people to get employed in new
jobs." President Obama has filled a top job in his
party as he prepares to seek a second term. He chose
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida
to head the Democratic National Committee. She
replaces Tim Kaine who plans to run for the Senate
from Virginia next year. Among Republicans, former
Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty recently formed a
committee to explore a presidential campaign.
Several other Republicans are also considering races
for their party's nomination. The latest jobs report
showed that thirteen and a half million Americans
remained unemployed in March. Another concern is
that oil prices remained over one hundred dollars a
barrel. High energy prices could threaten the
recovery from the recession. In another development,
Portugal became the latest member of the European
Union with heavy debts to request emergency loans.
Portugal joined Greece and Ireland which have also
received aid. Portuguese opposition parties refused
to accept budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister
Jose Socrates. For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn
Presutti. For more ways to learn American English
and stay informed every day, go to
voaspecialenglish.com from your computer or mobile
device.
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
