Is Jeffrey Immelt the right man to get the country's jobs situation back on track? President Barack Obama thinks so and has named Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric (GE), to a new economic advisory panel.

Immelt is essentially the new Paul Volcker, as his panel replaces one previously led by the former Federal Reserve chairman. Immelt's immediate job is to figure out how to get U.S. companies to start hiring.

The pick certainly says a lot about Obama's thinking heading into the 2012 election. He needs to make significant headway with big business -- it doesn't get much bigger than GE -- and he must turn the employment picture around.

Immelt, a lifelong Republican, is entirely qualified for the job. He's already on the board of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and he spent two years on the economic recovery board that Volcker chaired.

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He's been chief executive for a decade at GE, which beat analyst expectations today in its fourth-quarter earnings. Shares are up nearly 6% as a result, to $19.47. That will help placate investors who have been clearly frustrated at the stock's performance over the years.

But I wonder exactly how much time Immelt will be able to devote to his new role. After all, he's continuing as chief executive of GE, which I imagine is more than a full-time job. Bloomberg describes Immelt as an "outside adviser" to the new panel.

Immelt simply won't have the time to roll up his sleeves and get deep into the jobs situation, which makes me think that role is more public-relations -- a stamp of big-business approval -- than anything else. Volcker privately complained that his panel was merely a public-relations tool for the White House, Bloomberg reported.

At any rate, the nomination paves the way for Immelt to jump from a lackluster, underperforming company to a new, more public role. Politics, perhaps? Immelt says former President Ronald Reagan is one of his personal heroes, and he has been an active contributor to political campaigns for years.

Reagan had "a very simple vision for the country," Immelt told Bloomberg. "He had a 'one-two-three, this is what we're going to get done' about him, and I think that's important for business leadership as well."