Salt Lake City (CNN) The White House wants to put more returning servicemen and women to work manufacturing and installing solar panels, an effort President Barack Obama will add to his growing list of climate actions meant to combat global warming.

He visited an Air Force base outside Salt Lake City on Friday to highlight a new program that trains veterans to size and install solar panels on their military compounds, in the hopes of imparting skills applicable to a rapidly growing sector of the economy.

It's part of a larger effort to train workers to manufacture green energy technologies as a way to create jobs.

"That's how we're going our keep our economy growing, and how we're going to create new jobs," Obama said.

The administration received disappointing jobs news earlier Friday, when the monthly Labor Department report showed businesses slowed their hiring in March. The White House cited bad weather, among other factors, in explaining the slowdown.

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