After Friday’s announcement of some of the worst US unemployment figures for decades, the country’s president-elect has been quick to promise a massive public works programme.

Barack Obama made the pledge in his weekly broadcast on YouTube.

“We need action and action now,” said Obama. “That’s why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs. We are rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil and saving billions of dollars.”

With ordinary voters blaming Wall Street and the banks for the recession , the talk of new jobs on an interstate scale is aimed at offering hope to the unemployed.

Although precise sums have not been named, US state governors have already approved the equivalent of over a 100 billion euros.

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