U.S. Unemployment to Linger, OECD Says

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development speculates that the still-inflated U.S. unemployment figure is unlikely to return to precrisis levels until 2013, at best. The report encouraged continued efforts by policy makers to support the labor market and applauded the stimulus efforts and accommodating monetary policy for turning the economy around. Challenges that still remain include replacing the lost net worth and reducing the debt levels. In the shorter term, this may require an increase in interest rates. In the longer term we’ll see a rise in taxes and an effort to balance the deficit by 2015. It seems that the decades of consuming more than we produced are over. The next few years and possibly decades may require us to produce more than we consume to regain our net worth. It is time to start saving and investing.