Obama not ready to say recession is over, says jobs picture could worsen in coming months

Obama not yet prepared to declare recession over

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama isn’t ready to close the book on the recession.

Only last week Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the worst recession since the 1930s was probably over.

But Obama tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that he’s going to leave it up to the Fed chairman to say whether it’s officially over or not.

Obama says all the signs are that the economy is going to start growing again. But he says jobs are a challenge.

The president says job figures usually are the last to catch up in a recovery and he says that making up for all those jobs that have been lost will require really high growth rates.

He’s warning that the jobs picture could get even a bit worse over the coming months and that there might not be enough job creation until next year to deal with the rising population.