Obama: Broadband projects to add jobs

The president made the announcement in response, partly, to Friday's Labor Department report that said 83,000 private sector jobs had been added to the economy in June although 125,000 jobs were lost overall due to planned cessation of 225,000 temporary jobs with the U.S. Census Bureau.

"Make no mistake: We are headed in the right direction. But as I was reminded on a trip to Racine, Wis., earlier this week, we're not headed there fast enough for a lot of Americans."

"The recession dug us a hole of about 8 million jobs deep," he said.

Obama said the 66 projects would provide 5,000 jobs in construction and installation, and provide benefits to "tens of millions of Americans -- more than 685,000 businesses, 900 healthcare facilities and 2,400 schools. … (which) can lead to hundreds of thousands of new jobs."

"Once we emerge from the immediate (economic) crisis, the long-term economic gains to communities that have been left behind in the digital age will be immeasurable," he said.

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