CBS 2 hosted two unemployed residents and an economic analyst Thursday as President Obama made his job-creation proposal. (CBS)
Reporting Mike Parker
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CHICAGO (CBS) – Two unemployed Chicagoans hope President Obama’s job-creation plan will help restart the U.S. economy and help their prospects.
CBS 2’s Mike Parker was the area residents when they watched Obama’s much-anticipated speech Thursday night.
Barat McClain is an attorney who’s been unable to find a job since 2008. When the president proposed a $4,000 tax break to any business that hires someone who’s been looking for work more than six months, the idea resonated with her.
“Not having worked for three years now, a concern of mine is that I might be viewed as someone who is not at the top level of desirable candidates,” she said.
And when the President talked about more jobs for veterans, that was encouraging to Germaine Tyler. He’s a married father of four who returned from military service in Iraq nine months ago and has been without work ever since.
“It hit home really good,” Tyler said. “I came back in January of this year. The job market’s still terrible.”
As for Francisco Torralba, an economist with Morningstar Inc., he thinks Mr. Obama did not go far enough.
“I think it might go some way toward avoiding another downturn of the economy,” he said. “But it’s not going to be a big engine of job growth.”
