US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that unemployment was expected to hit 10 per cent this year as companies cut payrolls to cope with prolonged recession. -- PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that unemployment was expected to hit 10 per cent this year as companies cut payrolls to cope with prolonged recession.
Asked during an interview with the Bloomberg television network whether the jobless rate, which surged to a 26-year high of 9.4 per cent in May, would reach 10 per cent, the president said:'Yes.'
Queried whether the double-digit rate would occur this year, Mr Obama also replied in the affirmative but added that jobs would continue to be lost even as the recession that struck in December 2007 eased.
'Yes. I think that what you've seen is that the pace of job loss has slowed, and I think that the economy is going to turn around.
'But as you know, jobs are a lagging indicator. And we've got to produce 150,000 jobs every month just to keep pace, just to flatten this out.' -- AFP
