Touting the need for more jobs, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Silicon Graphics International serves as an example of how businesses around the nation can help turn around a sluggish economy.

During a 20-minute tour of the Fremont, Calif.-based company's Chippewa Falls plant, Johnson on Monday praised SGI for being "a growing company" and a "positive sign" of an economic turnaround. SGI provides products for high-performance computers.

While figures show the national unemployment rate has dipped to 8.5 percent, Johnson cautioned that people shouldn't focus too much on one-month statistics. He noted that 170,000 people have dropped out of the workforce, meaning they are no longer actively seeking employment.

"We're a long way from being out of the woods," Johnson said of high unemployment rates. "We've had 30 months of President Obama's recovery. His recovery hasn't come close to being robust."

Johnson, a freshman Republican, focused his discussion with the media on the need for job growth and curbing government spending. He praised the U.S. House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans, for passing jobs bills but said those measures have been derailed in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.

Reducing the size of the federal budget must be addressed to help boost the economy, Johnson said.

"The problem is we are actually bankrupting this nation," Johnson said. "We simply cannot continue to run $1.3 trillion deficits."

Kristen Dexter, a former state assemblywoman and current chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Eau Claire, defended Obama's economic recovery process.

"The job recovery has been painfully slow for some people, but I think Obama is on the right track," Dexter said. "If we can fault Obama for one thing, it's that he didn't let America know how close we were to full and complete economic meltdown when he took office."

Dexter said Obama has made bold moves, such as extending credit to General Motors. The car manufacturer is now on solid footing, has repaid its debts, and the company is one of the reasons the job market is recovering, she said.

While Congress recently raised the debt ceiling, Johnson fears the new ceiling will be reached in only two years. He also is fearful of what would happen to the U.S. economy if other countries stopped buying U.S. debt and how domestic interest rates could skyrocket.

Johnson wouldn't throw his support behind any of the Republican presidential nominees seeking to unseat President Obama but said he would support all of them over the president.

Dick Harkness, vice president of operations at the SGI Chippewa Falls facility, said Johnson's office contacted the company about a tour.

"The senator certainly heard about our growth over the last 18 to 24 months and he wanted to see it," Harkness said, noting SGI is busy preparing to ship the Altix Ice X computer line.

SGI currently has 400 employees at the Chippewa Falls plant, including 225 workers in manufacturing.

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