Reply #8: Fears grow over length of US jobs crisis

[Ghost Dog]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The latest snapshot of the US labor market due Friday was expected to show painfully high levels of unemployment persisting, in more troubling news for President Barack Obama. Economists expect the November report will show a jobless rate stuck at 9.6 percent for the fourth consecutive month, as millions of Americans struggled to get back to work.

...

With the employment market unable to untether itself from recession, the jobless rate has remained above nine percent for the last 18 months. While that high rate of joblessness is a constant worry for the eight-plus million Americans who lost their jobs during the crisis, policymakers are increasingly concerned about how long the trend has persisted.

...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke this week warned that entrenched high levels of unemployment could have a "very long-term effect" on the US economy. Job creation, he said, is "probably the most important economic issue facing America today."

...

"This is very unusual and very worrisome," Bernanke said, warning workers could become detached from the workforce, skills could erode over time and firms become more skeptical about the unemployed. "This could have a very long-term effect on people's wages, on their employability," he added.

/... http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101203/bs_afp/useconomyunemployment_20101203070655;