The US unemployment rate, currently at 9.7 percent, will remain "unacceptably high" for some time to come, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday. "The unemployment rate is still terribly high and it's going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time," Geithner said on NBC's "Today" Show. The government reports its March unemployment figures on Friday.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the report to show that the economy has added 200,000 jobs, which would mark only the second time jobs have increased since the recession started in December 2007. "The economy's going to start creating jobs again," Geithner said. "The economy's growing now, that's the first step and with growth jobs will come."