Yellen says pockets of ‘persistently high’ unemployment remain

JANET YELLEN, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, said challenges remain in the U.S. labor market, including concentrations of elevated joblessness in poor and minority communities. / BLOOMBERG NEWS PHOTO/ANDREW HARRER
JANET YELLEN, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, said challenges remain in the U.S. labor market, including concentrations of elevated joblessness in poor and minority communities. / BLOOMBERG NEWS PHOTO/ANDREW HARRER

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said challenges remain in the U.S. labor market, including concentrations of elevated joblessness in poor and minority communities, as she pushed for better education and training so the economy works for all Americans.

“While the economy overall is recovering and the job market has improved substantially since the recession, pockets of persistently high unemployment, as well as other challenges, remain,” she said in the text of a speech Tuesday in Washington.

U.S. central bankers are gradually removing monetary stimulus as inflation moves back up to their 2 percent target. At 4.7 percent in February, the nation’s unemployment rate is at their estimate of maximum use of labor resources.

Yellen didn’t discuss monetary policy in the text of her remarks to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. She mentioned several educational and workforce development programs that could help narrow disparities in minority communities, such as campus-based childcare programs, apprenticeships and technical education.

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The unemployment rate for African-Americans stood at 8.1 percent in February, about half of its peak rate of 16.8 percent in March 2010 following the financial crisis and recession. The unemployment rate for Hispanics is 5.6 percent, compared with a post-recession peak of 13 percent in August 2009.

“Significant job market changes in recent years, brought about by global competition and technological advances — and the new and shifting skills that these changes demand — make workforce development more important than ever before,” Yellen said. “Fortunately, programs such as the ones I have highlighted today can help address these challenges in more targeted ways than the Federal Reserve is equipped to do through monetary policy.”

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