"We've got a long way to go. We've inherited a terrible situation, the most pressing economic problems since the Great Depression in our country," Summers told CNN television's "State of the Union" program.
Summers called efforts to bring down the high unemployment, which has been stuck for months at 9.7 percent, the "preoccupation" of President Barack Obama's administration.
"There's a great deal we've got to do, and we've got to do it with all of the energy that we can," Summers said.
"It is the president's preoccupation to put people back to work," he said. "That's what the legislation he signed into law -- to give incentives to businesses to hire people who've been out of work -- was all about.
Summers also cited a raft of legislation in the pipeline, to "channel credit to small business, to protect the jobs of those on the front lines, teachers and policemen, to make investments" -- all with an eye towards job creation.
He told ABC television's "This Week" program, meanwhile, that after months of grinding recession and a stalled unemployment rate, he "expects the trend to be upwards" in the US economy.
But Summers suggested the path toward economy recovery may not be smooth, warning that "the numbers could fluctuate."
Christina Rohmer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, took a more sanguine view of the economy, hailing what she called "good, solid employment growth."
"I anticipate we'll continue to see positive job growth as we go forward. What I'll be focusing on is, how big does it get," she told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.
"The fact that the unemployment rate stayed constant this month at some level is pretty amazing," she said.
"There's been a tremendous increase in the labor force," Rohmer added.
"Over the last three months we've added more than a million people to the labor force. That's a great sign. That's a sign that people that might have been discouraged dropped out because of the terrible recession, have started to have hope again, and are looking for work again."
Their remarks came after the US government released figures last week showed that the recession-wracked American economy may be turning a corner, creating 162,000 jobs in March, the biggest increase in three years.
Last week's upbeat economic news was tempered however by sobering data showing that the number of people who have not worked in more than six months rose by 414,000 in March, to 6.5 million people.
The US Labor Department also said Friday that the job growth was not enough to budge the unemployment rate from 9.7 percent -- a mission Obama will be determined to accomplish before crucial mid-term elections in November.
Since the recession began in December 2007, around eight million Americans have lost their jobs. Some 15 million Americans remain unemployed.
But like Summers, Rohmer warned that it may not be completely smooth sailing ahead on the jobs creation front.
She noted that an anticipated real GDP growth of just three percent for 2010 may not be enough to create more than a trickle of new jobs.
"You need faster than that to really make a dent," she said. "We still face a lot of headwinds."
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