Telecom execs expected to attend President Obama’s Jobs Forum

Leaders from a number of high-tech and telecom firms as well as labor leaders are expected to meet this week at President Obama’s jobs summit in Washington, D.C. The meeting is based on the President’s Forum on Jobs and looks to generate discussions on job creation.
Industry leaders expected to attend the forum this Thursday include AT&T Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Randall Stephenson, Comcast Corp. Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt.
Speaking during a recent trip to Asia, President Obama said he called the forum in an attempt to “hear from CEOs and small business owners, economists and financial experts, as well as representatives from labor unions and nonprofit groups, about what they think we can do to spur hiring and get this economy moving again.
“It is important that we do not make any ill-considered decisions – even with the best of intentions – particularly at a time when our resources are so limited. But it is just as important that we are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we’ve already taken to put America back to work. That’s what I hope to achieve in this forum.”
The government this week is expected to release its November jobs report that market research firm Briefing.com told CNN.com would show a decline of 114,000 jobs during the month, which would be less than the 190,000 jobs lost in October. CNN.com said it expects the nation’s unemployment rate to remain steady at 10.2%.
A report earlier this month from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the telecommunications sector added roughly 300 jobs from September to October employing about 977,100 people, which was down about 3 percentage points from the 1.01 million employed during the same period of 2008. Chetan Sharma of Chetan Sharma Consulting noted in a report that the worst of the job cuts was likely over for the domestic wireless industry.