2ndUPDATE: Obama:Government, Business Need To Attack Job Problem

President Barack Obama on Wednesday said that with the economy slowly recovering, the U.S. government and business leaders have to throw everything they've got at improving employment because "there's no time to lose."

Obama, speaking at Northern Virginia Community College, said the U.S. has to be "ruthless" in determining the value of jobs programs and do everything in its power to spark job creation. He also called on Congress to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act, which allocates funds locally to provide employment and training to low-income youth.

The president traveled to the community college to pitch manufacturing in America -- a key theme of his re-election effort. He detailed an industry-led effort to match community-college students with manufacturers.

The manufacturing sector, until May, had seen job increases since October 2010.

The pitch is to get students into an array of manufacturing jobs that require different levels of expertise. Ron Bloom, Obama's manufacturing czar, said the industry-led effort is aimed at training "skilled blue-collar workers" such as welders. Bloom said the training will be for jobs ranging from "something as prosaic, if you will, as working in a steel mill to something as sophisticated as working in a computer fabrication facility for microprocessors."

It is unclear what impact the initiative will have as the administration isn't pledging new funds to propel it. There are 13.9 million Americans who would like to work but who can't get a job. The unemployment rate edged up to 9.1% in May from 9%, stoking fears that the U.S. economy would fall back into a recession. The unemployment rate in the manufacturing sector is 9.6%.

Obama's comments come as he is in a tough fight with Republicans about how to lower the country's deficit. Republicans have sharply criticized Obama's economic policies, saying they have hampered growth and injected too much uncertainty for businesses to hire.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a statement companies are "holding back because they don't know what else to expect in terms of regulations, taxes, mandates, and fees."

While the plan Obama mentioned Wednesday is to tailor credential programs based on needs of employers in a given area, there is no guarantee getting a certificate will lead to a job.

"Now, that won't always be able to absolutely translate into a one-for-one job," said Bloom. He said the probability of credentialed students getting jobs is "obviously far, far better than if you're simply training yourself abstractly without knowledge of what the needs of the local employers are."

Obama is joining with business leaders, community colleges and manufacturing organizations in the effort. A key part of the initiative will be a program by the Manufacturing Institute, a non-profit organization affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers, to provide 500,000 community-college students with industry-recognized credentials.

Obama will be getting help from some big names, including the co-founder of the online coupon company Groupon Inc. and executives from Snap-On Inc. (SNA), Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI) and Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA). Groupon's Brad Keywell, Motorola's Greg Brown, Snap-On's Nick Pinchuk, Accenture PLC's (ACN) Bill Green, Discovery's David Zaslav and other executives will take part in the effort. They are members of the Aspen Institute's Skills for America's Future, a group that seeks to pair employers with community colleges.

Obama said the steps being taken "boil down to is this: right now there are people across American with talents just waiting to be tapped." He continued, "There's no time to lose."

-By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; jared.favole@dowjones.com

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