"It is time for companies to step up," Obama said. "American taxpayers contributed to that process of stabilizing the economy. Companies have benefited from that, and they're making a lot of money, and now's the time for them to start betting on American workers and American products."
Here are some reasons it is difficult for businesses to simply "step-up":
Energy prices are way up, businesses depend on energy to operate and have less money to hire because employers have to spend on higher energy costs
Employers don't know how expensive ObamaCare will really be and so far have already seen premium costs for employer provided healthcare increase, therefore have less money to pay new hires
Employers not only have to pay a wages to a new hire, they also have to match and pay the same amount of payroll taxes the employee pays to the government
Overall economic uncertainty.
When businesses are capable of hiring, they will hire. There is this little thing called a profit that must be made in order to grow a business. Employers can't "step-up" and hire without it, but with Obama's reckless economic policies and endless regulation proposals, stepping up isn't going to happen anytime soon and his lack of business understanding isn't helping either.