US jobs have a long way to go

The United States has "a long way to go" in taming its stubbornly high unemployment rate, despite positive jobs creation news last week, top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers says.

"We've inherited a terrible situation, the most pressing economic problems since the Great

Depression in our country," Summers told CNN television's "State of the Union" program.

Summers called efforts to bring down the high unemployment, which has been stuck for months at 9.7 percent, the "preoccupation" of President Barack Obama's administration.

"There's a great deal we've got to do, and we've got to do it with all of the energy that we can," Summers said. “It is the president's preoccupation to put people back to work," he said. "That's what the legislation he signed into law -- to give incentives to businesses to hire people who've been out of work -- was all about.

He told ABC television's "This Week" program, meanwhile, that after months of grinding recession and a stalled unemployment rate, he "expects the trend to be upwards" in the US economy.