Obama Lays Out Jobs Plan

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- With a jobless rate over 10% and millions of unemployed struggling in a miserable labor market, President Barack Obama on Monday laid out a broad outline of initiatives meant to stimulate job growth in the months ahead.

Obama, in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, underscored the need to create, maintain and beef-up various tax initiatives for small businesses, continue efforts to rebuild portions of the nation's infrastructure, and create tax incentives for consumers to retrofit their homes with efficient energy technologies.

The speech comes 10 months after passage of a $787 billion economic stimulus package. Obama pointed to some advances since his administration took office, but was cautious when discussing the work ahead.

"We're no longer seeing the severe deterioration in the job market that we once saw," Obama said. "In fact, we learned on Friday that the nation's unemployment rate fell slightly last month. This is welcome news."

"But I'm here today because our work is far from done," Obama continued. "For even though we've reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood."

On the small business front, Obama proposed the elimination of capital gains taxes on small business investment for one year, while extending tax write-offs to encourage owners to hire. He also proposed waiving fees and increasing guarantees on loans backed by the Small Business Administration.