US President Barack Obama will hold a press conference Thursday, the White House said, as he prepares to ramp up his effort to sell his jobs initiative, seen as crucial to his 2012 reelection bid.
A statement said the news conference would be held at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) in the East Room of the White House.
Obama will be pushing his $447 billion jobs bill while on a bus tour beginning next week through swing states Virginia and North Carolina.
The president will take to the road in a brand new Secret Service bus between October 17 and 19.
His meeting with reporters at the White House comes as the US economy grapples with stubbornly high unemployment of 9.1 percent, and with some economists predicting that a new employment report to be unveiled Friday will show only modest growth in new jobs.
A poor report Friday is likely to heap pressure on Obama\'s administration, which has been unable bring the unemployment rate down below 8.8 percent since the 2008-2009 recession ended.
According to a private sector survey released Wednesday, US firms created a paltry 91,000 jobs last month, indicating a long slog ahead to reclaim the nearly nine million jobs lost since the financial crisis.
After spending weeks leaning on Congress to pass his jobs plan, but with nothing to show for it, Obama on Tuesday lashed out at Republicans blocking the bill, and headed to the conservative heartland state of Texas to try and heap pressure on his foes in Congress.
"At least put this jobs bill up for a vote, so the entire country knows where members of Congress stand," Obama said in Mesquite, Texas, in the latest stop on his countrywide campaign swing.
In his Thursday press briefing Obama was likely to touch upon the recent death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs from cancer at the age of 56.
The president paid tribute late Wednesday to Jobs as one of America\'s "greatest innovators."
"He transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world," Obama said in a statement.
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