Ben Bernanke: Long-Term Unemployment Crisis Altering Job Market For The Worse

By alaynaspop on | From amillionposts.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that record levels of long-term unemployment will alter the U.S. job market for the worse for the foreseeable future.

Bernanke said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing that the natural rate of unemployment -- or the level of unemployment that results when the economy is supporting as many jobs as it can -- has risen from about four percent in the early 2000s to more than five percent because so many Americans have been out of work for so long. In the process, they have lost skills and have become less likely to return to work.

"We are concerned that over the past few years that there has been some modest increase in the sustainable long-run rate of unemployment," Bernanke said. "I hope Congress will consider ways to address that problem."

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