Better growth, but fewer jobs

Better growth, but fewer jobs

Top economists in the US have improved their economic forecasts for 2010, but warn that unemployment will continue.

November 23, 2009 12:02 by Aarti Nagraj

The US will see stronger economic growth next year, and will start adding jobs during the first quarter of 2010, according to a survey of 48 members of the National Association for Business Economists (NABE).

“While the recovery has been jobless so far, that should soon change,” said NABE President Lynn Reaser. “Within the next few months, companies should be adding instead of cutting jobs.”

The economists however warned that the unemployment rate would remain high throughout next year, averaging at 9.6 percent in the last quarter of 2010. More than 8.2 million people in the US have lost their jobs since December 2007, and the country’s unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent, the highest in 26 years. Unemployment increased in 29 States across America during October.

Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicted that unemployment in the US will stand at 9.9 percent next year, before falling marginally in 2011.

“The best thing we can say about the labor market right now is that it may be getting worse more slowly,” the US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said last week.

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Tags: 2010, dollar, Economy, Financial Crisis, improve, unemployment rate, US