White House: Health, green jobs growing quickly

White House: Health, green jobs growing quicklyWASHINGTON (AP) — Health care and environment-focused jobs will drive a

jobs recovery, the White House predicted Monday even as it cautioned that

the work will require better training to give workers greater skills.President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers said jobs ranging

from technical record keeping to nursing and physical therapy will grow in

the health fields and that greater spending on renewable energy and on a

more efficient electrical power grid will spike employment in those sectors

as well.The president's in-house economic brain trust also predicts the

construction sector would eventually recover and add a demand for skilled

electricians and plumbers.The upbeat economic report served to give support for President Barack

Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan. Critics have said it has

failed to provide the results promised; its supporters, including the

president, urged patience.The White House, seeking to calm domestic frustration, has insisted its

plan would eventually boost millions of jobs. The CEA report stood by a

prediction that the stimulus spending would save or create 3.5 million jobs

by the end of 2010.However, the job market continues to contract and more Americans are filing

for unemployment. The economic recession has cost the United States 6.5

million jobs since December 2007 and has left states and cities in

financial freefall.In an interview with CNBC, the Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman,

Christina Romer, said it is difficult to determine how many jobs have been

created as a result of the stimulus. "You don't know what the economy would

have done without it," she said.The White House economists predicted a 48 percent growth between 2000 and

2016 in health care support jobs. The officials also predicted a 52 percent

growth during the same period for environment-based jobs.The administration's 26-page report, called "Preparing the Workers of Today

for the Jobs of Tomorrow," laments that the current U.S. post-high school

education and training system should be more effective at encouraging

participants to complete their training and to respond to the labor market.

Jobs in growth sectors will require greater analytical thinking than jobs

in industries that are in decline, the report concluded.The White House acknowledged its job growth predictions were based on a

Labor Department report from 2007, before the economic troubles became a

crisis and well before Obama's spending plan took effect.For the very latest green jobs from across the U.S. and around the world

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