White House Touts 162,000 New Jobs, Concedes Recovery Will Be Slow

March 4, 2010— -- It may have been the biggest increase in three years -- the addition of 162,000 jobs, as Friday's jobs report announced. But for millions of Americans, it doesn't mean that happy times are here again.

Although Cheryl Chua, a single mother of three, found a job as a hotel check-in clerk last month after being unemployed for two weeks, she says she still doesn't feel secure.

"Its still economywise paycheck to paycheck living ... even though you have a job," she said. "Actually I have a second job. I'm a wedding photographer as well."

Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, said that fear is understandable.

"This is not a recovery yet. People are right now very scared, understandably, of getting their jobs back," Reich said in an interview with ABC News.

And while White House aides are pleased with Friday's report, they know the economy -- growing only three percent this year -- won't help millions of out-of-work Americans.

"That's not enough to get a lot of job growth. We'll get positive job growth. It'll be enough to probably bring the unemployment rate down a little bit. But you need faster than that to really make a dent," White House Council of Economic Advisors Chairwoman Christina Romer said today on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The president's top economic adviser, Larry Summers, also advised caution.

"We are in no position to rest or to be complacent," he said today on ABC's "This Week." Summers said he "expects the trend to be upwards," though he cautioned that there could be some bumps and "the numbers could fluctuate."

The slow recovery of the economy could be a political problem.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that in just the past seven months voters have deserted Democrats and now believe by a slight margin that Republicans in Congress would do a better job on the economy. This could be bad news for Democrats come midterm elections this November.

"I don't think they have time for any real, meaningful economic growth to happen to change the public's view on confidence in the economy before the midterms. So I think it's still a huge albatross around the Democrats' neck," said Republican strategist and ABC News analyst Matthew Dowd.

Administration aides say they are optimistic Congress will pass financial regulatory reform this year, to prevent another bank meltdown in the future, despite Wall Street deploying lobbyists to stop or water-down reform.