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Senate Republicans on Thursday defeated a plan by President Barack Obama to renew a temporary cut in the Social Security payroll tax, even as all sides on Capitol Hill continue to promise an eventual compromise on a tax holiday before Congress leaves Washington for Christmas.

For residents in the rural Midwest, the governor's announcement was golden: A global company with Chinese ownership planned to hire 612 people at a new factory making artificial sweetener.

Gov. Rick Snyder wants to tie retraining programs to companies' needs, erase barriers keeping welfare recipients from work and encourage more Michigan residents to earn math and science degrees under an initiative aimed at making workers more competitive in the global marketplace.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose for the second straight week, a sign the hiring market is recovering at a slow and uneven pace.

House Republicans are drafting legislation to renew an expiring unemployment benefits program, officials said Thursday, and intend to add it to a planned extension of a Social Security payroll tax cut due to run out on Dec. 31.

Republican congressional leaders stressed a willingness Wednesday to extend a Social Security payroll tax cut due to expire Dec. 31, setting up a year-end clash with Democrats over how to pay for a provision at the heart of President Barack Obama's jobs program.