Despite encouraging economic signals, hiring is struggling to resume but should, said a Federal Reserve governor during a speech, titled "The Jobless Recovery," Thursday at Carnegie Mellon University.
"Job creation and hiring remain quite sluggish," said Ben Bernanke, who was the keynote speaker at the annual Carnegie Bosch Institute conference on global economics.
The nation has lost about 2.8 million jobs since the beginning of the recession in March 2000, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some 2.4 million of that were in manufacturing, "by far the hardest-hit sector," said Bernanke, who headed Princeton University's economics department before being named to the Fed in August 2002.
Economists, however, anxiously await the October jobs report expected from the U.S. Labor Department early today. It could indicate a return of hiring, provided certain trends continue, Bernanke said.
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