Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

ALBANY, GA -- Most people we talked to agree that unemployment is a serious problem not just in U.S, but it's especially hitting hard here in Georgia.

On Thursday local and state leaders sat down for lunch and to talk business. They call it a power lunch, put on by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, to get regional input from businesses throughout the state.

Chris clark: “Today we're going to talk specifically about economic development, we're going to talk about some new strategies there, we're going to talk about what we're working on with our military bases and we're going to talk about transportation,” said Chamber President Chris Clark. “The Georgia chamber has to show leadership in these areas, we've got to be out front on these things that matter and anything that we can do to get the economy going again and create jobs all over the state then we need to do and these are area's that we fell like are critical right now.”

This isn't the only place where the discussion is focused on jobs. The lunch is a bit of a backdrop as the president lays out his plan to bring down unemployment. And southwest Georgians say they'll be paying close attention.

“I hope he says that he has a plan for the way the economy is and about jobs and a lot of people need that speech tonight,” said Cynthia Thomas.

“At 9.1 percent unemployment and I heard them talking about this on the T.V., this is probably one of the worst spots we've been in recent years,” said Jerry Alexander.

Clark says don't expect the government to swoop in and create jobs for everybody.

“I've been in economic development long enough to know all that government can do is create the environment for job growth, but what we are seeing out of Washington is a lot of negative impact on job growth,” said Clark.

He says the best thing government can do is relax on regulations, the rest is up to the people who are actually fighting the fight

“We've also got to be about what's the strategy here in Georgia. We can't expect someone in Washington to save us. We've got to do this on our own. We've got to build on our own strengths,” said Clark.