Top US officials on Wednesday painted a bleak picture of Europe's job growth and put a premium on competing with India and China, but denied that either posed a "threat" to US economic interests.
The officials briefed reporters a day after US President George W. Bush called in his annual State of the Union speech for enhancing the teaching of math and science in US schools and for sharply increasing scientific research.
In his speech, Bush warned that the United States "cannot be complacent" and warned that "we are seeing new competitors, like China and India, and this creates uncertainty, which makes it easier to feed people's fears."
But "this is not about going up against China and India," said John Marburger, the director of the White House's office of science and technology policy. "This is about leading the world."
Labour Secretary Elaine Chao said that job creation had been "one of the greatest areas of concern" at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but painted an upbeat picture of employment in the United States.
"Our country is leading the way among major industrialized nations in terms of job creation. Germany and France have permanent unemployment rates in excess of 10 percent. And job creation in Europe has basically been stagnant over the last 10 years," she said.
{{/usCountry}}"Our country is leading the way among major industrialized nations in terms of job creation. Germany and France have permanent unemployment rates in excess of 10 percent. And job creation in Europe has basically been stagnant over the last 10 years," she said.
{{/usCountry}}Amid concerns in the US public and the media about Chinese economic growth and the so-called outsourcing of jobs to India, Marburger insisted that: "We're not responding to a threat, we're maintaining a leadership role.