WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama signed into law a $24 billion economic stimulus bill providing tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and extending unemployment benefits to the longtime jobless who have been left behind as the economy veers toward recovery.
The bill-signing at the White House Friday came a day after the House, displaying rare bipartisan agreement over the seriousness of the jobless situation, voted 403-12 for the measure. The Senate approved it unanimously on Wednesday.
The White House said the law, which also includes tax cuts for struggling businesses, builds on provisions in the $787 billion stimulus package enacted last February that aim at spurring job creation.
"The need for such a measure was made clear by the jobs report that we received this morning," Obama said, citing Friday's government report the jobless rate hit 10.2 percent last month, the highest since 1983. The rate was 9.8 percent in September.
He called it a "sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead" and pledged more work.
"I will not rest until all Americans who want work can find work," he said during a Rose Garden appearance before reporters.
Lawmakers stressed that the fourth unemployment benefit extension in the past 18 months was necessary because initial signs of economic recovery have not been reflected in the job market.
"The truth is that long-term unemployment remains at its highest rate since we began measuring it in 1948," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. About one-third of the 15 million people out of work have gone at least six months without a job.
The law provides another 14 weeks of benefits to all out-of-work people who have exhausted their benefits or will do so by the end of the year, estimated at nearly 2 million. Those in states where the jobless rate is 8.5 percent or above get an additional six weeks.
The Labor Department announced Friday that that employers shed another 190,000 jobs in October. Obama said job creation traditionally lags behind economic growth, but said it is small comfort to those seeking work.