Top Fed Official: 'It's Going To Take Several Years' Before Jobs Return

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve policy-setting panel member Sandra Pianalto said in a question and answer session that “with an economy that’s only gradually improving, it’s going to take us several years to achieve that mandate [of increasing jobs].”

Ms. Pianalto said she forecasts that, for the rest of the year, is the U.S. will likely continue to grow at an anemic 2.5 percent annual growth rate or slightly better, and that inflation should stay around two percent for the next couple of years.

“We need more growth in order for more jobs to be created,” said Pianalto.  “And in order for that unemployment rate to come down to that 6 percent rate which I view as maximum employment.”

As Fox Business reports:

The number of new jobs has fallen from 259,000 in February to 154,000 in March to 115,000 in April. These figures reveal not only a weak level of job growth, but also a troubling direction for the months ahead….In April, the labor participation rate fell to 63.6 percent, the lowest in more than 30 years.

Presently, a record 87,897,000 Americans are not in the labor force.