Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: Treasury official Gene Sperling, expected to be named as President Obama 's top economic aide, has two important qualifications that experts said probably helped him secure the job: He's done it before and he's dealt with a hostile Congress.Sperling, 52, held the same White House position — director of the National Economic Council — from 1997 through 2000 under President Clinton . He was a key negotiator with the Republican-controlled Congress then over economic issues, such as preventing cuts to the earned-income tax credit for low-wage families.With Republicans taking the majority in the House and gaining more seats in the Senate, the ability to work across party lines will be crucial, said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities think tank."It would be hard to find someone who is more experienced in the particular tasks this job entails," Greenstein said.President Obama is expected to make the appointment Friday when he discusses the economy at a Maryland window manufacturing facility. Sperling would replace Lawrence Summers , who left the White House last week to return to Harvard University , a move he announced in September.Summers, a former treasury secretary known as a brilliant economic thinker, elevated the NEC job to new importance. Sperling probably wouldn't have Summers' unusually strong influence on the administration's economic strategy.The other leading candidates were Roger Altman, chairman of investment banking firm Evercore Partners and a former deputy Treasury secretary under Clinton, and economist Richard Levin, president of Yale University Since 2009, Sperling has served as counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and has been involved in key policy decisions, such as the bailouts of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, as well as negotiations with Congress over last year's small-business lending bill and the temporary extension of the Bush-era tax cuts."What's unusual about Sperling is the degree to which he blends knowledge and background with the policies with the feel for the broader political environment," Greenstein said.Sperling's work for Geithner increases the treasury secretary's clout on Obama's economic team, said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research."My guess is they think fairly similarly," he said.Baker and some liberals have criticized a potential Sperling appointment because of consulting work Sperling did in 2008 for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Sperling was paid $887,727 for helping the Wall Street firm launch a charitable initiative called 10,000 Women, which aimed to spend $100 million over five years to provide business and management education to underserved women around the world.But some people who have worked with Sperling said he's not beholden to Wall Street, noting his years of work on women's education after leaving the White House and a history of advocating for average Americans. They said the title of Sperling's 2005 book best describes him: "The Pro-Growth Progressive.""He understands there's larger economic growth issues that are important to the business community," said former NEC colleague Sarah Rosen Wartell, now executive vice president of the Center for American Progress. "But he is also a very passionate advocate for what people would consider traditional liberal interests." ||||| President Barack Obama says a new jobs report shows a trend in the right direction even though the numbers are fluctuating and hiring and growth must still accelerate. 
  
 FILE - In this Dec. 17, 2010, file photo, Gene Sperling, counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, arrives for the tax cut extension bill to be signed President Barack Obama during a ceremony... (Associated Press) 
  
 The December jobs report out Friday morning showed the nation's unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent, the lowest level since May 2009. That was because more people found jobs, but also because many gave up on their job searches. 
  
 Obama pointed to optimistic economic forecasts for the year ahead. He said, "The trend is clear." 
  
 Obama spoke at a window manufacturing plant in suburban Maryland, where he also made some personnel announcements on key economic posts. He named veteran economic adviser Gene Sperling to head the National Economic Council, a key role for a White House intent on driving down unemployment even further as Obama gears up for re-election. 
  
 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. 
  
 President Barack Obama will name Gene Sperling as director of the National Economic Council on Friday, a move that will place a veteran policy and political player in the White House to work with a divided Congress. 
  
 The role gives Sperling broad oversight of the administration's economic policies as the White House contends with near-double digit unemployment and looming legislative battles over the budget and deficit. His appointment comes amid a broader shake-up of Obama's senior staff as the White House ramps up the president's re-election campaign. 
  
 The White House early Friday confirmed Sperling's appointment, which had been anticipated for days. Obama was to announce Sperling's new post, as well as other changes to the economic team, later in the day during remarks on the economy. 
  
 Obama's announcement coincides with a rare bright spot on the economic front: the December jobs report out Friday morning showed the nation's unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent, the lowest level since May 2009. That was because more people found jobs, but also because some people gave up on their job searches. 
  
 Sperling, 52, currently a senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, will assume his new role as the White House seeks to accelerate the recovery and find an antidote to the still sky-high jobless numbers. That will place him at the center of a debate with economic ramifications for the country and political implications for Obama when he seeks re-election in 2012. 
  
 Sperling, who advised President Bill Clinton and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, is perceived as the type of rare policy adviser who also has a deft touch communicating the message in a legislative and political environment. 
  
 "That skill becomes even more important when the Congress is controlled by the opposition party," said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research group. 
  
 The White House said Obama also will nominate Katharine G. Abraham to his Council of Economic Advisers and Heather Higginbottom as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Those two posts require Senate confirmation. Obama also will elevate economic adviser Jason Furman to assistant to the president for economic policy. 
  
 Friday's announcements come as Obama shuffles his top leadership following sweeping defeats for the president's party in the midterm elections: 
  
 _ Obama named William Daley, a prominent business executive, as his chief of staff Thursday. 
  
 _ Press secretary Robert Gibbs is leaving the White House next month to become a paid consultant to Obama's re-election campaign. 
  
 _ Senior adviser David Axelrod will head to Chicago next month to lead the re-election campaign, with Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, filling his role at the White House. 
  
 Sperling will replace Lawrence Summers, who left the White House at the end of December to return to Harvard University after two years as NEC director. 
  
 For Sperling, the appointment is a return to a familiar role. He served as deputy NEC director under Clinton and was promoted to director in 1997. He played a key role in the 1993 deficit reduction bill and compromised with a Republican-led Congress on the 1997 balanced budget agreement. 
  
 Sperling's pragmatism and his work as a corporate philanthropy consultant to Goldman Sachs, where he was paid more than $880,000, has prompted some liberals to voice misgivings about his appointment. He helped the investment bank design an initiative to provide business education to women in developing countries. He also worked with actress Angelina Jolie to develop education programs for children living in conflict-ridden countries. 
  
 "It's hard for me to believe someone gives you $900,000 and you don't feel positively disposed toward them," said Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. 
  
 But Greenstein defended Sperling as an advocate of policies that help low and moderate income families and especially children. 
  
 "That's not exactly what comes to mind when this label gets thrown around that he has ties to Wall Street," Greenstein said. 
  
 As a counselor to Geithner, Sperling has worked closely with the president and played a key role in budget negotiations and the administration's small business initiatives. Administration officials say Sperling made a strong impression on the president last month when he helped secure a compromise with Republican lawmakers on a deal to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all income earners. 
  
 The selection process for the council dragged on for months. Summers announced his resignation in September, and many in the administration knew well before then that he planned to return to Harvard. 
  
 Some White House aides originally wanted Obama to name a business leader to the council job as a way to give the private sector a greater voice in the administration and ease the perception that the president is anti-business. But finding a CEO with economic credentials proved difficult and the White House thinking evolved over time. 
  
 Officials became more inclined to find another prominent job for a private sector appointee while leaving the council post to a policy heavyweight who could coordinate the advice Obama receives from throughout the administration. |||||
Output:
President Obama named current Treasury adviser Gene Sperling as his next top economic aide today, taking over for Larry Summers as director of the National Economic Council, the AP reports. It’s familiar territory, the Los Angeles Times adds: Sperling had the same job under Bill Clinton, and he faced a Republican Congress. "He's a public servant who has devoted his life to making this economy work—and making it work, specifically, for middle-class families," Obama said. Working as counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner since 2009, Sperling was involved in the auto-industry bailouts and the Bush tax cut extensions. And though he's taken some heat over consulting work he did for Goldman Sachs in 2008 and the hefty paycheck—$887,727—that followed, insiders quote the title of Sperling’s book: They call him a “Pro-Growth Progressive,” not a hostage to Wall Street.