Obama may back a national version of a Georgia program that encourages businesses to provide on-the-job training for people receiving unemployment benefits. About a third of the time, the workers wind up getting hired full-time.

2. Extending, for one year, a cut in the payroll tax that supports Social Security

The cut, part of a deal struck last December by Obama and Republicans, reduces the tax to 4.2 percent from 6.2 percent on the first $106,800 a person makes. That amounts to $1,000 a year for someone earning $50,000.

Keeping the tax cut would cost the government $110 billion to $115 billion. The research firm Macroeconomic Advisers estimates it would support 400,000 jobs in 2012. The theory: More money in people's pockets increases demand for goods and services across the economy, and businesses have to have enough workers to keep up.

The problem is that keeping the tax cut doesn't create jobs where they didn't exist before.

"It's in the 'Do no harm' camp," says economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute. "We have that support now, so it's not going to gain us anything. It's just a matter of: If we let it go, we lose."

Critics of this approach also point out that the extra money in people's paychecks this year has mostly been eaten up by higher gasoline prices.

"Continuing the payroll tax cut is tempting," says John Makin, economist at the American Enterprise Institute. "But I have to ask, if I look at the results, is it worth an increase in the deficit and debt?"

(Photo: In this Aug. 16, 2011 photo, Jason Kallicragas, right, talks with Cheryl Cooper Perez, a regional sales coordinator for Aflac, at a job fair, in Independence, Ohio. AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

3. Offering tax incentives to businesses to hire the unemployed

Under consideration is an expanded version of a law passed last year that encouraged companies to hire the unemployed. The law exempted employers from paying their share of the Social Security tax when they created jobs for those unemployed for at least two months.

But economists say the law didn't boost hiring much.

Rajeev Dhawan, director of Georgia State University's economic forecasting center, says the tax break might encourage employers to hire workers they didn't need, which would be inefficient. Or, he says, it could give them a tax break for something they were going to do anyway.

(Photo: In this photo taken Friday, June 17, 2011, Jesus Martinez works on a road under construction in the Bridge District in West Sacramento, Calif. AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

4. Spending more on public works

Obama's proposals will probably include spending on roads and other infrastructure programs and add to the deficit. And he's expected to call for as much as $50 billion for school construction and renovation.

But public works programs can take years to get started and create jobs.

"Infrastructure spending cannot jump-start near-term hiring unless ramped up at a pace and a scale that, outside of wartime, would be unprecedented," Macroeconomic Advisers concluded in a report.

Some businesses would welcome it anyway.

Dyke Messenger, CEO of a construction equipment firm called PowerCurbers in Salisbury, N.C., says new infrastructure spending could help his business — and embolden him to hire more people. He employs 85 now.

He says his customers — construction companies — won't order more of his machines "until they can see a steady supply of work ahead of them."

"I'm not going to hire somebody unless I'm absolutely sure I've got work for them, period," Messenger says.