Economic storm over, devastation remains: Obama

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has credited his economic policies with pulling the country out of its worst recession in decades but promised a renewed focus on restarting job growth that has lagged behind the economic recovery.

“One year later, the worst of the storm has passed,” Obama said Wednesday in his first official State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress. “But the devastation remains.”

Obama acknowledged that 10 per cent of Americans remained unemployed. He said the recession had “compounded” decade-long burdens of falling wages for US families and said voters were right to be angry and frustrated about the state of the economy.