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Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said U.S. companies scarred by the financial crisis remain "very cautious" and are trying to get more productivity from current employees before hiring new ones.
Job growth is "not as fast as we need," Geithner said in an interview broadcast today on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. Employers "are still cautious, still very cautious," he said. "So they've been trying to get as much productivity out of their employees as possible."
Geithner also said, in a separate interview on ABC's "This Week" program, that allowing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to lapse at the end of this year wouldn't hurt economic growth.
The U.S. economy lost 125,000 jobs in June while adding 83,000 private-sector positions, fewer than forecast. While the unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent from 9.7 percent, it has exceeded 9 percent since May 2009.
On NBC, Geithner said he doesn't think the U.S. will suffer a so-called double-dip recession. "The most likely thing is you see an economy that gradually strengthens over the next year or two," he said.
Companies announcing job reductions in July include New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson. The health- products company, under U.S. congressional investigation for a recall of children's medicines, said it will reorganize the plant where the withdrawn drugs were made and cut 300 positions.
Geithner said he thinks the government should keep a role in housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while studying how much U.S. policy should encourage homeownership.
Source: Bloomberg | Ian Katz
