Obama Needs Better Counsel on Jobs

President Obama kicked off his second year in office by announcing a new advisory council for jobs. It was going to be comprised of the top names in business and bring innovation and competitiveness back to the U.S jobs market.

Well, less than five months later, the results are less than stellar as evidenced in today's dismal jobs report. There could be a very good reason why this panel isn't living up to the hype.

A majority of the major corporations represented are not practicing what they preachstarting with the top dog GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. This is the man tapped to lead the new era of job creation in this country. In just one decade, GE went from employing 313,000 people168,000 in this countryto having only 134,000 American workers. General Electric often stood at the top of Fortune's Most Admired list, but not since 2007 has it reached number one. Also on the list, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns. Last year her company laid off 2,500 workers, and more are expected in their western New York center.

President Obama is also seeking advice from the American Express CEO. The same month the council was formed, the credit card company announced plans to close a customer service center in North Carolina - cutting 1,500 jobs. That's after 4,000 layoffs in 2009 and 7,000 in 2008. DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman had to hand out 4,500 pink slips in just the first year of her tenure. The third-biggest chemical maker in the U.S. eliminated more than 14,000 employees during the recession. Just today, Boeing - whose CEO James McNerney is also on the council - told more than 500 employees they were being let go. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini, often ranked as the highest paid CEO during his tenure, has reduced his staff from 104,000 to less than 83,000. Eastman Kodak employs less than 19,000 people, which is down 20% in two years. This one is a personal favorite - President Obama is getting advice from Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons. This is a company that, during the recession, laid off more than 50,000 employees and took $45 billion in taxpayer money just to survive.

This is just a sampling of the kind of people who have the president's ear. Is it no wonder we're stuck on stupid?

We're not making headway with the jobs crisis, because the people telling the White House what to do don't have the answers either.

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