White House Predicts Job Growth Come Spring

Spring has long been thought of as a season of renewal and now it looks like Americans can look forward to a rebirth in the job market some time in the spring of this coming year. And we could use it!

Aides to President Obama said Sunday that the U.S. economy should start generating jobs as early as the second quarter of 2010.

"I believe that, as do most professional forecasters, that by spring, employment growth will start to be turning positive," Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on ABC's "This Week," reports Reuters.

Earlier this month, Tonic reported that better-than-expected unemployment numbers for November (a dip from October's high of 10.2 percent) indicate that the light at the end of the tunnel we've all been waiting for could be within sight. To help matters, boosting employment is at the top of the president's agenda heading into the new year.

So far, Obama's efforts to bolster the economy have consisted largely of stimulus payments used to extend unemployment benefits and other bailouts. The president has been criticized for not emphasizing job creation. Now the pressure's on for him to ramp-up spending on infrastructure development amid exploding budget deficits, reports Reuters.

Obama is meeting with top bank executives this week to encourage them to increase lending to small businesses. There's no question the 10 percent of Americans still looking for work could use the new job opportunities.

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