Jarrett: 'Job summit' focused on gauging private sector's 'appetite'

Skeptics would be wrong to read Thursday's "job summit" as a sign the Obama administration is out of ideas on job creation, one White House aide suggested this morning.

Rather, the president hopes to exchange suggestions about how to improve the labor market with its top employers, in part to gauge whether those potential reforms would draw any support or interest in the private sector, explained Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett.

"It doesn't make sense for the administration to announce we're going to do 'X, Y and Z' program if there isn't an appetite for it and it won't help create jobs in the private sector," she told CNBC, noting the White House was unwilling to wait many months for the labor market to correct its own problems.

Jarrett later added the Obama administration would put "everything on the table" this afternoon -- from infrastructure improvements to green job investments -- with the hope of developing ideas for Congress, or other proposals the White House could implement "on our own," in the near future.

"The solutions are not solely in government, [but] the private sector cannot do it without the support of government," Jarrett said. "How can we marry those two interest and come up with some specific, concreate ideas of how to move forward?"

But while the White House pondered that question, so too did congressional Democrats and Republicans.

The majority party has spent about a month now mulling over a possible "job stimulus" -- some bill, the details of which remain irresolute, that could cost up to $300 billion, according to The Hill's estimate.

House Republicans, meanwhile, are pressing forward with an offensive of their own: A new media blitz on job creation, coupled with a counter-"jobs summit" at the Capitol on Thursday, hosted by House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

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