President Obama delivers remarks at meeting with Economic Recovery Advisory Board

SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

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OBAMA: ... another Great Depression. We have pulled the economy back from the brink. We got good news last week showing that for the first time in over a year, the economy was actually growing once again. And we have seen some other indicators that manufacturing is beginning to pick up.

That's all good news, and we are pleased that the actions that we took swiftly through the Recovery Act helped to stem what could have been a disastrous situation for the economy and we are starting to see stabilization and indeed some improvement.

But the reason we're here today is because we just are not where we need to be yet. We've got a long way to go. We are still seeing production levels that are significantly below peak levels. And most distressing is the fact that job growth continues to lag.

Now, we all know that in every economic recovery there is going to be a lag between the economy growing again, businesses investing again, and businesses hiring again. But given the severity of the job growth that took -- the job losses that took place at the beginning of the year, and the need for us to make up a whole lot of job loss is going to require, I think, some bold, innovative action on our part and on Congress' part and on the private sector's part.