President-Elect Obama's Weekly Radio/Web Address 11/22/08

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US president-elect Barack Obama announced Saturday that he had ordered his economic advisers to produce an economic recovery plan to create 2.5 million new jobs over the next two years.

Well be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy, Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Obama, who has vowed to make the economy his priority when he takes office from President George W. Bush in January, said the effort should produce 2.5 million new jobs by January of 2011 and lay the foundation of the countrys economic recovery.

His announcement came two days after government data showed that new jobless claims had surged to a 16-year high, in a new sign that the worlds largest economy appeared to be sliding into a deep recession.