U.S. President Barack Obama says his administration will work with private companies to train 10,000 new American engineers a year to create more high-skilled jobs in a weak economy where unemployment tops 9 percent.

Mr. Obama announced the job training initiative Monday in a speech to workers at a high-tech manufacturing facility that he toured in the southern city of Durham, North Carolina. The facility is run by Cree, Inc., a maker of energy-efficient LED lighting.

President Obama flew to the state earlier in the day to hear job creation proposals drafted by 26 business leaders he appointed to a Jobs and Competitiveness Council. After meeting the panel at Cree's facility, he told its employees that business leaders are having trouble finding enough high-skilled workers to fill positions.

Mr. Obama said he and the council agreed to launch a job training program under which private companies will offer incentives to students to finish their engineering degrees and help universities pay for their education. He said the companies are “not counting on” much federal funding for the scheme.

In separate remarks to the council, Mr. Obama said businesses also must have enough confidence about the U.S. investment climate to hire more people. He said the U.S. government's huge national debt and budget deficit problems are a “concrete impediment” to growth and jobs.

Council leader Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, outlined other job creation ideas in a joint article with American Express Chief Executive Ken Chenault Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

They include simplifying visa procedures to attract more tourists to the United States and hiring unemployed construction workers to improve energy efficiency in commercial buildings. The CEOs said government and private-sector support for the measures could create one million jobs.

White House advisor Valerie Jarrett says many of the council's ideas can be implemented without spending taxpayer money.

The president is under pressure from Republicans who control the House of Representatives to sharply cut government spending in return for Republican approval of an increase to the national debt limit.

Mr. Obama has seen his public approval rating decline in recent weeks as the nation's unemployment rate edged up to 9.1 percent in May. He faces re-election next year.

North Carolina's jobless rate of 9.7 percent is among the highest in the country. Mr. Obama won the state by 14,000 votes in 2008, the narrowest margin of his presidential election victory.