Obama Partners with Companies to Aid Long-Term Jobless

Walmart, Apple and others work with administration to help unemployed find work

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President Barack Obama announced Friday that his administration is partnering with major American corporations like Apple and Walmart to help long-term unemployed workers find jobs.

“Because they’ve been unemployed so long, folks are looking at that gap in the resume and they’re weeding them out before these folks even get a chance for an interview,” Obama told CNN in an interview that aired Friday.

“What we have done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including, some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like Walmart, and Apple, Ford and others, to say let’s establish best practices,” Obama said. “Do not screen people out of the hiring process just because they’ve been out of work for a long time.”

The move is part of an effort by the administration, signaled during this week’s State of the Union address, to move on issues like unemployment and the minimum wage through executive action where possible and work around an often gridlocked Congress.

“As I said at the State of the Union, I can’t wait,” Obama said. “And the American people can’t wait.”