"The other thing that happened though, this goes to the point you were just making, is there are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers," President Obama said about unemployment in an interview with NBC's Ann Curry.

Obama claims ATMs and kiosks at airports have eliminated some jobs.

"If you see it when you go to a bank you use the ATM, you don't go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport and you use a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate," he said.