How to keep Ohio jobs and create more in a state with an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent has become a focus of the close presidential race here.

    Democrat Barack Obama plans a two-day bus trip his campaign calls the "American Jobs Tour." He'll be in some areas hard hit by job losses, starting Thursday in Dayton and heading into southern Appalachian Ohio.

    Republican John McCain has also been talking a lot about his plans to pump up the economy and create jobs as the economy emerges as the leading issue on many voters' minds.

    Ohio unemployment is at a 16-year high, and looming are the losses of thousands more jobs in southwest Ohio, at an air park near Wilmington and a General Motors Corp. SUV assembly plant near Dayton.

    The cuts in the auto industry and other manufacturing work in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana have helped boost Obama's chances in the neighboring states.

    He says he can save and add jobs with road, bridge and other infrastructure projects and by investing in renewable energy, while giving the middle class tax relief.

    McCain says he will get new jobs and stimulate the economy by controlling government spending, keeping tax rates low for everyone, and cutting taxes on companies.

    When President Bush came to Cincinnati on Monday, Democratic officials in the state highlighted company closures and job losses during his presidency and warned that McCain would extend that trend.

    However, some state Republicans say Democrats shouldn't point fingers on Ohio's decline in the last two years, with Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland leading the state and Democrats controlling Congress.

    "Now you have a Democrat who's governor, who's been in charge of all of the major decisions, and he promised to turn around Ohio's economy," said state House Speaker Jon Husted, a suburban Dayton Republican. "The Democrats who are running government now bear the responsibility for its effectiveness or ineffectiveness as it relates to the economy."

    Husted said McCain has the better economic plan for Ohio.

    "He recognizes that, at a time when businesses are struggling, the last thing you want to do is raise their taxes or further drive up the cost of doing business ... and make it harder to grow the economy," he said.

    Strickland said Ohioans are responding to Obama's pledge to bring about economic change.

    "The economy is such that I really do think that it's going to trump every other consideration," Strickland said. "People are rightfully concerned about jobs and health care and their economic futures."

    Moraine, a southern Dayton suburb, is losing some 2,000 jobs alone as General Motors shuts down the SUV plant. McCain running mate Sarah Palin plans to campaign Thursday in the Wilmington area, threatened with the loss of some 8,000 jobs by DHL's plans to have UPS Inc. carry some of its air packages, which would shift work away from the air park in the city about 60 miles southwest of Columbus.

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