President Obama Presented Ideas to Accelerate Job Growth and America’s Competitiveness at Jobs Council Meeting
Today, President Obama traveled to Durham, NC to meet with the Jobs and Competitiveness Council at the corporate and U.S. manufacturing headquarters of Cree, a leading manufacturer of energy efficient LED lighting. While at Cree, the President toured the company’s LED lighting product assembly facility, met with the Jobs Council and delivered remarks to Cree employees, Jobs Council members, local business owners and representatives from nearby engineering colleges and universities.
The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is led by GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt and is composed of representatives from various sectors of the economy andleaders in diverse industries -- people running large and small companies that represent millions of Americans helping the economy run every single day. The Jobs Council held their first meeting at the White House on February 24, 2011. At that time the Council committed to holding their second meeting outside of Washington, DC. Cree’s facility, located in the heart of North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park area, was selected to hold the second meeting.
President Barack Obama tours the manufacturing facilities at Cree, Inc., a leading manufacturer of energy efficient LED lighting, in Durham, N.C. June 13, 2011. With the Presient are: Chuck Swoboda, Chairman and CEO of Cree, Inc., left, and Matthew Rose, Chairman and CEO, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
In his remarks today, the President commended Cree for exemplifying the potential of American innovation, manufacturing and advanced technology:
Today the small business that a group of N.C. State engineering students founded almost 25 years ago is a global company. It’s got 5,000 employees. Next month, your new production line will begin running 24/7. And soon you’ll add another 400,000 square feet of space on a new site next door. So you’re helping to lead a clean energy revolution. You’re helping lead the comeback of American manufacturing. This is a company where the future will be won.
He also discussed the role of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and detailed some of the recommendations to address short-term, medium-term and long term economic growth and job creation that they presented to him today:
And today, with the leadership of the Jobs Council, we’re announcing an all-hands-on-deck strategy to train 10,000 new American engineers every year. So -- and by the way, our Jobs Council, led by Jeff Immelt, they’re doing this not counting on a whole bunch of federal funding. Private sector companies are teaming up to help us promote STEM education, to offer students incentives to finish those degrees, and then to help universities fund those programs. They’re going to double their summer internship hiring.
We’re talking about companies like Intel, whose CEO Paul Otellini is here today. And Paul is heading up our task force for the Jobs Council in helping to figure this out, because he understands Intel’s survival depends on our ability to get a steady stream of engineers. I’ve been, by the way, to the Intel plant out in Oregon. It is unbelievable. It’s out of -- something out of science fiction. And I pretended like I understood what they were saying the whole time.
But that’s what’s going to drive our competitiveness in the future. We know that if we’re going to maintain our leadership in technology and innovation, our best companies need the world’s brightest workers –- American workers.
Now, that brings me to a second idea that we discussed backstage. At Cree, you’re putting people back to work in a field that has the potential to create an untold number of new jobs and new businesses right here in America -– and that’s clean energy. And my administration has invested heavily in clean energy manufacturing, because I want to see the LEDs and solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars of tomorrow made right here in the U.S of A. I want them made right here. (Read rest of article)
B4B NOTE: As President Obama works to accelerate Job Growth....Time to Ask the GOP....
WHERE'S THE JOBS YOU PROMISED !!!
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