Labor Secretary Solis Says Latino Support For Obama Still Strong

WASHINGTON - Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said today the Hispanic community still supports what President Obama is doing on jobs despite the high unemployment rate.

“I think there’s still a lot of confidence and support for the work the president is doing,” Solis said of what Hispanic leaders have told her at various town-hall meetings she has held across the country.

“It’s not happening fast enough — that’s one of the major concerns. That’s why the president has to ramp up quickly on jobs creation.”

Solis said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast today that members of the Hispanic community, like other cultural groups, “realize it’s very hard. This whole economic situation has taken many people by surprise.”

Her comments come in the wake of a new impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll found that the percentage of Latino voters who are certain they would vote for Obama in 2012 dropped from 49 percent in June to 38 percent in August.

Solis rejected recent claims by Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor union, that Obama hadn’t done enough on jobs. She cited the administration’s loans to the auto industry, and said her department had improved job training in the health care sector.

“As you know, the federal government does not create jobs,” she said. “We help incentivize [job creation].”