President Barack Obama is to address America's jobs crisis in a speech at 1630 GMT after the US unemployment rate jumped past the symbolic 10 percent barrier, the White House said Friday.
"Today's employment report contained both signs of hope for recovery and painful evidence of continued labor market weakness," Obama's top economic aide Christina Romer said in a statement.
Friday's data showed a rise in the US jobless rate to 10.2 percent in October, the first time in more than 26 years that the statistic had reached double digits.
"Having the unemployment rate reach double-digits is a stark reminder of how much work remains to be done before American families see the job gains and reduced unemployment that they need and deserve," Romer said.
Obama's address will also provide an opportunity for the president to give more reaction to the shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, where an army psychiatrist, a devout Muslim, shot dead 13 people on Thursday.
