Obama adviser says high jobless rate to continue

Updated on: Monday, September 13, 2010

Indicating that the US unemployment rate to remain high for some time, President Barack Obama's new top economic advisor today said that it is going to be a long battle to get out of the recession.

"I think it's fair to say that after this recession that began in 2007 put us very deep in the hole, it's going to be a long battle to get out of that deep of a recession. So we've had positive private sector job growth for eight months," Austin Goolsbee, Chair of Economic Advisors, said.

"I don't think the unemployment rate will be coming down significantly anytime in the near future," said Goolsbee, in an interview to the Fox News who was appointed to this new position on Friday by the US President Barack Obama.

"I think it's clear that the labour market is significantly weakened, has been for some time. We have to do everything we can to try to create jobs and get people back to work," he said.

In another interview to the ABC News, Goolsbee said the recession is going to stay high.

"This recession is the deepest in our lifetimes, the deepest since 1929. If you take the people thrown out of work in the 1982 recession, the 1991 recession, the 2001 recession, not only is this bigger, this is bigger than all of those combined," he said.

"So more than eight million people lost their jobs. It's going to take a significant push on our part and time before that comes down. I don't anticipate it coming down rapidly," Goolsbee said.

Obama adviser says high jobless rate to continue

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