Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said the drop in the unemployment rate to 8.5 percent may be partially reversed in coming months.
“I’m a little concerned that the most recent improvement is going to be transitory and it might move up above 8.5 percent,” Evans said in response to audience questions after a speech today in Carmel, Indiana.
Evans said he forecasts that “at the end of the year, we’re not going to be very different from 8.5 percent unemployment.”
Fed policy makers will discuss at their Jan. 24-25 meeting in Washington whether more steps are needed to bolster an expanding U.S. economy. Employers last year added 1.64 million workers, the best year for the American worker since 2006. Even with the gain, little headway has been made in recovering the 8.75 million jobs lost as a result of the recession that ended in June 2009.
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