Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said Monday that President Barack Obama needed to focus on creating jobs and strengthening the middle-class in his State of the Union address.

He noted on Current TV that the unemployment rate was still relatively high and wages had declined. Reich said many Americans had “almost no economic security at all” and that Obama should “pivot around jobs.”

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When it came to Republican obstruction, the University of California professor advised Obama to “batter them over the heads” for blocking his jobs bill.

“Framing the issue is very important around jobs and the economy,” Reich said. “But coming up with specific programs that the Republicans will agree to seems to me almost impossible in this environment.”

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: