Evans turns focus to ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’

Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said yesterday that his primary mission in the next 14 months will be to preach the message of job growth to the American public.

“We’re going to be talking about jobs, jobs, jobs. And I’m going to be traveling around the country talking about jobs, jobs, jobs,” Mr. Evans said in a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

The unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent last month, but a small net job gain was the first positive news from a largely jobless recovery.

“This is going to be my principal focus for the next 15 months, talking about how is it we continue to create these better conditions for job creation,” he said.

Mr. Evans also hopes to turn attention to positive developments in Iraq with a visit to that country next week.

“[President Bush] certainly thinks that for me to go over there is a good idea,” Mr. Evans said, adding that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld encouraged him to make the trip.

Commerce Department officials will be involved in helping Iraqis write rules and regulations for their economy, he said.

But Mr. Evans said his main focus in the coming months will be on issues that directly affect U.S. companies, especially job creation.

Employment is shaping up as a major campaign issue.

Among the Democratic presidential candidates attacking Mr. Bush’s economic record is former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

“By this time in his presidency, President Clinton had created over 7.5 million private-sector jobs. In contrast, President Bush has lost over 3.2 million jobs in his 33 months in office,” Mr. Dean said last week.

Mr. Dean said the Bush tax cuts should be repealed to pay for health care and other projects.

Mr. Evans disagreed, saying Bush administration policies, notably the tax cuts, had spurred economic growth.

“We’ve got a lot of good momentum in terms of the economy and job creation now,” he said.

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