US Vice President Joe Biden today said the government would unveil plans next week to "ramp up" its stimulus spending efforts to revive the country's sluggish economy, according to dpa. Citing a jobs report Friday that was far better than expected, Biden said the 787-billion-dollar recovery package approved in February was beginning to pull the economy out of recession. "We still have a long, long way to go in the road to recovery," Biden said at the White House. "And that's why on Monday the president and I will be announcing our plans to ramp up the Recovery Act implementation over the summer." The US Labour Department on Friday said 345,000 jobs were lost in May, the smallest number in eight months, though the country's unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point to 9.4 per cent. Biden said the figures provided "some signs of hope ... and a few signs that our actions to get this economy back on track are beginning to make some difference." About 6 million jobs have now been lost since the United States' worst recession since the 1930s began in December 2007.
