Obama names Gene Sperling as top economic adviser

Gene Sperling, the new head of US President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, is pictured after Obama's announcement at Thompson Creek Window Company in Landover, Maryland, January 7, 2011. Photo: Xinhua/Reuters

US President Barack Obama announced on Friday that Gene Sperling would take the position of National Economic Council (NEC) Director, the top White House economic adviser.

Obama made the announcement during his Friday trip to a US manufacturing company in Maryland. Former NEC Director Larry Summers, a Harvard professor, resigned at the end of last year.

Sperling, a counselor to US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, served the same position of NEC Director during the Clinton administration.

"Gene has been an extraordinary asset to me and this administration over the past two years. He has been working with me. He is a public servant who has devoted his life to making this economy work, and making it work specifically for middle-class families," Obama noted.

Obama said that one reason he had selected Sperling was that in Sperling's tenure in the Clinton administration during the late 1990s, he helped formulate the policies that contributed to turning deficits to surpluses and a time of prosperity and progress for American families in a sustained way.

Obama also announced to elevate Jason Furman, deputy director of the NEC, to be principal deputy head of the agency, the number two slot at the NEC.

Obama named his pick of Heather Higginbottom, deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council, to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Obama also nominated Katharine Abraham, a commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the Clinton administration, to be a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The pace of US jobs creation was picking up momentum and the economy was recovering, but there was still "a lot to do" to spur the economic growth, said Obama before announcing the appointments.

The US Labor Department on Friday said that the country's unemployment rate dropped by 0.4 percentage points in December 2010 from November 2010, but still stood at 9.4 percent.

"Part of this team's mission in the months ahead will be to maximize the steps we have taken to spur the economy," Obama added.