Obama says uncertainty over the increasing national debt ceiling has made businesses hesitant to hire, and believes they will gain more confidence once Congress reaches an agreement.
A new jobs report just released by the U.S. Labor Department, shows that only 18,000 jobs were created in June, the fewest in nine months.
Obama says more needs to be done to jump start the economy.
"We've added more than 2 million new private-sector jobs over the past 16 months, but the recession cost us more than 8 million, and that means that we still have a big hole to fill."
Obama wants to pass administration-backed proposals, including a payroll tax cut extension and three free trade agreements. He said it would reduce the jobless rate a full point by fall 2012.
But Republican opposition and Washington's heated partisan atmosphere would likely make passing the full slate of administration proposals difficult to achieve.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
