Obama to take action on manufacturing goal

Reuters - President Barack Obama said he will talk next week about how he plans to create jobs in the U.S. manufacturing sector, one of several economic goals he set for his administration last year that is now receiving renewed attention from the White House.

Speaking from the White House in his weekly Internet address, Obama hinted that his Wednesday trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, will focus on manufacturing.

"Working folks are looking for the kind of stable, secure jobs that went overseas in the past couple decades. So next week, I'll join companies and colleges and take action to boost the high-tech manufacturing that attracts the kind of good new jobs a growing middle class requires," Obama said.

The Raleigh-Durham region is known for being home to three research universities and a host of biotech firms.

Obama has long said that jobs are his top priority. But his attention this year has been diverted by a series of thorny foreign and domestic policy problems.

Since December, Obama has turned his attention again to economic issues, pledging to address the gap between rich and poor in his remaining years in office.

In the address, he also promised to create three manufacturing hubs where businesses could work with government to create high-tech jobs, and highlighted the promise in a speech at an Asheville, North Carolina, truck plant the next day.