How do we get the jobs? Moving to four million

His new target to save or create 4m jobs, announced on Saturday, marked the second time in three weeks that Mr Obama had raised the goal. He originally said the stimulus would generate 2.5m jobs before upping it to 3m last month.

From the FT... new comments from the President-elect

Everyone wants the President elect to succeed. We would like a leader who will provide confidence and clear direction. In fact, we long for such a leader. This is something that we have been missing since the economic crisis began. Being positive is not enough. we need truth combined with action. There is no question that we will need a significant counter-cyclical fiscal package, but we do not think it is helpful to revise the job numbers repeatedly while not changing the economic package. these have to go hand-in-hand. It does not help to win market confidence if there is a new job number which is higher every time there is a new unemployment number. There needs to be better clarity on how the fiscal plan will work or the negative market reaction will be swift.