IMF: High Jobless rate till 2011

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123400§ionid=3510213


The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it expects unemployment in developed countries to remain high this year and next, at an average rate of 9 percent.

In a report released Wednesday, the agency said the United States and other industrialized countries still need to implement government stimulus and other policies to make up for slow private job creation.

"The nature of the recent recession in several advanced economies . . . the high degree of financial stress and the high degree of uncertainty all weigh against a speedy recovery in job creation," the IMF said in the report, issued in advance of its World Economic Outlook, due for release next week.

The report also suggests that central banks in developed countries should keep interest rates low.

The IMF predicted that the unemployment rate throughout the developed world will remain around 9 percent through 2011, "given the continuous expansion of the labor force."

Although the US economy created 162,000 jobs in March, the largest increase in three years, the unemployment rate remains stubbornly at 9.7 percent.

Since the recession began in December 2007, around eight million Americans have lost their jobs. A total of 15 million Americans remain unemployed.

"Persistently high unemployment may be the key policy challenge facing these economies as recovery gains traction," the Washington-based body said in the report.

"The prospect of persistently high unemployment increases the need for policies to jump-start job creation," the report said.