US President-elect Barack Obama on Friday prepared to meet his economic lieutenants on a day of more dismal news for US workers while his aides dampened expectations of imminent Cabinet announcements. After the meeting with his high-powered advisory panel, the Democrat held the first news conference since his election triumph Tuesday over Republican John McCain, which was still in progress when The Daily Star went to press.Obama will inherit a recession-bound economy when he succeeds President George W. Bush on January 20, after the government said the US unemployment rate rose to its highest level since 1994 in October, at 6.5 percent. The Labor Department said 240,000 jobs had been cut in October, the 10th straight month of job losses, and new revisions meant that a whopping 651,000 workers have lost their livelihoods in the past three months alone.
Ahead of the advisory meeting, speculation was rife that the president-elect would move quickly to reassure jittery markets by announcing his pick for Treasury secretary.
But Obama's aides said there would be "no personnel announcements" on Friday, following Thursday's selection of pro-Israeli Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff.
Obama started his third day as president-elect with a parent-teacher meeting at his two daughters' school with his wife Michelle, a reminder that the next First Family will be the youngest in decades. He was to hold more meetings to plan his transition to the White House, receive a now-daily classified intelligence briefing from the CIA, and record the weekly Democratic radio address airing Saturday.