WASHINGTON — Promoting his new $447 billion bill to create jobs, President Barack Obama told NBC in an interview broadcast Monday that his jobs initiative is an insurance against a possible recession.

“There are still a lot of folks hurting out there. And my job as president of the United States is not to worry about my job — my task is to worry about their jobs and their economic situation,” he said in an exclusive interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.

Pres. Obama will send Congress his new jobs bill on Monday and urge lawmakers to quickly pass it, a White House official said.

The President will also travel across the country to build public support for the package he unveiled last week. He’ll visit the pivotal campaign states of Ohio on Tuesday and North Carolina on Wednesday to ask voters to pressure lawmakers to pass the bill.