President Barack Obama makes remarks about economic development at Lehigh Carbon Community College in Allentown, Pa., Dec. 4, 2009. (Official White House photo by Samantha Appleton)

If you haven't been following the updates from the road through our Facebook and Twitter accounts, by all means go get caught up before continuing. If you have, you might be curious to hear more about what the President has been saying at this various stops in Allentown, PA. The day after his Jobs Forum here at the White House, he went to talk to working people and small business owners, to hear from them on what's working and what's not. He's been speaking to people around town, but has his best opportunity speaking at Lehigh Carbon Community College. He began by making a few remarks about the economic news this morning:

I just came from Allentown Metal Works, where I had a chance to visit with workers there.  And they were working hard -- not just to forge the heavy machinery that makes this country run.  In fact, one of their projects is actually related to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers down there.  So you could just tell the extraordinary pride that the workers take in this project.

But like so many others across America, these workers have also been doing the best they can to stay afloat in a brutal recession that has hit folks like them hardest of all.

In the two years since this recession began, too many members of our American family have felt the gut punch of a pink slip.  Eight million Americans have lost their jobs.  Every one of us knows somebody who has been swept up by this storm:  neighbors who have lost their homes or their health care; friends who have used up their savings or put off their retirement; relatives who have downscaled their dreams -- or dropped them entirely; young people who aren’t sure whether they can afford their college educations.

I’ve heard these stories from every corner of America, and I see them in the letters that I read every single night. 

So as we come to the end of this very tough year, I want to do something I haven’t had a chance to do that often during my first year in office, and that is to share some modestly encouraging news on our economy.

Today, the Labor Department released its monthly employment survey and reported that the nation lost 11,000 jobs in November -- which was about 115,000 fewer than was forecast -- and is about close to zero, from the perspective of our overall economy.  (Applause.)  The unemployment rate ticked down, instead of up.  (Applause.) The report also found that we lost about 160,000 fewer jobs over the last two months than we had previously thought.  So overall this is the best jobs report that we’ve seen since 2007.  (Applause.)

And this is good news, just in time for the season of hope.  I’ve got to admit, my chief economist, Christy Romer, she got about four hugs when she handed us the report.  But I do want to keep this in perspective.  We've still got a long way to go.  I consider one job lost one job too many.  (Applause.)  And as I said yesterday at a jobs conference in Washington, good trends don’t pay the rent.  We’ve got to actually grow jobs and get America back to work as quickly as we can.

One of the questions he heard in the course of the discussion that followed came from Susan Kennedy with the Manufacturers Resource Center in Bethlehem, who said that all the manufacturers with her “want to know what you will do to loosen up the money for the small businesses and how they can compete more with the things they need to grow their businesses.” One of them stepped forwarded, adding “Today, our concern is, are the banks going to be there with us?  And we don’t feel they are.”

The President answered: