Obama Summit Tackles Jobs

The Obama administration will hold a much-hyped jobs summit today, bringing 130 guests—including labor leaders and a host of big-name CEOs—to brainstorm ideas for tackling unemployment. The event also just happens to coincide with the release of November’s unemployment figures, which aren’t expected to be pretty—ADP estimates that 169,000 jobs were lost last month.

With federal deficits dizzyingly high, Obama’s hoping for ideas that require minimal government outlays—like giving homeowners incentives to retrofit their homes for greater energy efficiency or tax credits for businesses that hire new employees. That hasn’t stopped labor leaders from dreaming big—the AFL-CIO is coming with a wide-ranging $400 billion to $500 billion proposal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, is hosting a competing summit that will advocate cutting back on regulations, taxes, and the deficit. (More Barack Obama stories.)