美国财政部长盖特纳说，美国的失业率在较长一段时间内将处于“令人难以接受的高位”。
盖特纳星期四在接受电视采访中说，企业将再次开始创造就业，但他还说，要扭转衰退造成的破坏要花很长时间。美国经济在衰退中裁员800多万人。目前失业率处于9.7%的高位。
政府将于星期五公布最新的失业数据。接受新闻机构采访的经济学家说，预计新的数据将显示就业人数出现净增，这将是衰退开始以来第二次出现净增。星期四发布的另外一份政府报告与上述预测似乎相吻合。美国劳工部的数据显示，上个星期首次申请救济人数略有下降，幅度为6000人，至43万9000人。
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the nation’s jobless rate will be “unacceptably high” for a long time.
Thursday, Geithner told television interviewers (on NBC) that businesses are going to start creating jobs again, but also said it will take a long time to reverse the damage done by the recession. The U.S. economy shed more than eight million jobs during the recession. The unemployment rate is currently a relatively high 9.7 percent.
The government is scheduled to publish an updated unemployment report Friday. Economists interviewed by news organizations say the data will show a net gain in jobs for only the second time since the recession began. A separate government report published Thursday seems to back up that prediction. The Labor Department data show the number of Americans signing up for unemployment compensation declined slightly last week (by 6,000 to a total of 439,000).