The president’s appearance follows last Friday’s dismal jobs report, which showed that employers added no jobs in August. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, held steady at 9.1 percent. The disappointing report sparked new fears of a second recession and injected fresh urgency into efforts by Obama to help get millions of unemployed people back into the labor market — and help improve his chances of getting re-elected.

The unemployment report also gave Obama’s Republican critics, including those who want to challenge him in next year’s presidential election, fresh ammunition to pound him with.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus dubbed Obama “president zero” in light of the jobs report. He said Monday the president has spent too much time giving speeches and campaigning.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the jobs report disappointing, unacceptable and “further proof that President Obama has failed.” Romney is scheduled to outline his own job-creation plan in a Tuesday speech in the battleground state of Nevada.

Obama’s plan is expected to include a combination of individual and business tax credits and public works spending. He will also press lawmakers for swift action on those proposals. Obama spent part of the holiday weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland “putting the finishing touches” on the p efforts to save the auto industry and millions of jobs by providing federal bailouts in 2009 for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC. The AFL-CIO rally was being held in a GM parking lot.roposals and the speech, said spokesman Jay Carney.