Employment Growth Unlikely Until Next Year

Washington, DC, May 11, 2009--The White House said it is unlikely to see employment growth until 2010 even if economic activity begins to pick up later this year, according to a report Sunday.

Christina Romer, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said that she expected unemployment to rise even if gross domestic product begins to grow in the fourth quarter of 2009, the New York Times reported.

The projection was similar to the one made last week by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

GDP has to grow at a rate of about 2.5% before unemployment will fall, said Romer, and it is "unfortunately pretty realistic" that the unemployment rate could hit 9.5%. A rate of 3% is a reasonable GDP-growth estimate for 2010, she said.

Meanwhile, Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton and an adviser for the Obama campaign, said on ABC's "This Week" program that the rate of growth would have to be 4.5% before unemployment levels begin to reverse, reported the Times.