Published: Monday, 2 Nov 2009 | 12:11 PM ET

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President Barack Obama said Monday the public and private sectors must find more ways to create jobs to continue the nation's climb out of an economic recession.

Obama said the economy has pulled back "from the brink" but still has a long way to go, especially in creating jobs. The president said job losses would continue for weeks and months to come and called for bold, innovative action by his administration, Congress and the private sector to create more good-paying jobs.

Obama made the remarks at the start of a White House meeting in the Roosevelt Room with economic advisers. The session was open to reporters and streamed live on the White House Web site.

He also said the U.S. must break out of a "debilitating gridlock on trade policy," by ending the false choice between a wide-open, free wheeling import policy or fearful, protectionist approach to trade. He called for a more balanced policy of letting the world know America wants to compete and trade -- fairly -- with anyone. He gave no specifics.

White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers is leading the high-level meeting to discuss the state of the economy, job creation and ways to achieve sustainable growth.

A White House announcement said the meeting would include Cabinet officials from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

National Security Adviser James Jones, White House climate czar Carol Browner, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are also among those scheduled to attend.

A spokesman for Summers, who is director of the White House National Economic Council, described the meeting as one of the regular gatherings of the council "This is a principals' meeting for the department and agency heads who participate in the NEC process to gather and discuss the state of the economy," said NEC spokesman Matthew Vogel.

The Summers meeting will be separate from a gathering that President Barack Obama will hold with his panel of outside economic experts headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

The Obama administration has been weighing options to address ways to try to restart job growth with the unemployment rate now at 9.8 percent.

Signaling the end to the deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression, the government last week said U.S. gross domestic product grew at a robust 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter.

Obama trumpeted the GDP numbers in his weekly radio address on Saturday but said, "we have a long way to go before we return to prosperity."

The White House has credited the $787 billion economic stimulus package passed earlier this year with helping to bring about the rebound.

Republicans have characterized the stimulus package as wasteful and say the continued job losses are an indication it has not worked.

New unemployment numbers due out Friday are expected to show U.S. employers cut another 175,000 jobs in October, according to economists polled by Reuters.

The unemployment rate is forecast to rise to 9.9 percent for October.

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