By AP
WASHINGTON – WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration says its economic recovery plan remains on track despite rising unemployment.
Jared Bernstein and other White House economists predicted four months ago the jobless rate now would be about 8 percent. It's actually nearly a point and a half higher. Critics are calling it fuzzy math.
Obama says critics should talk to business owners who decided not to cut jobs because of the stimulus plan.
The president's keeping up the optimism, saying the economy is showing progress, just not enough.
He's promising to ramp up stimulus spending and create or save 600,000 jobs by summer's end.
Economists say it'll take much longer than that for the stimulus to show any real job creation.