Economist: Unemployment to remain high

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- High unemployment is likely to haunt the U.S. economy for years to come, a leading U.S. economist said.

"Unemployment won't peak until this time next year, and then it will remain very high through next year," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, told The Washington Post in an interview published Monday.

Zandi predicted it would take years to reverse the "massive" U.S. job losses, which have totaled 5.7 million since December 2007.

"It won't get back to full employment until 2013 or 2014," he said. The U.S. lost 345,000 jobs in May.

To overcome those numbers, the economy must add about 150,000 jobs a month just to break even, as the number of citizens of working age is growing, the Post said.

With the erosion of the manufacturing and construction sectors, it would be even harder for uneducated workers to return to the workforce, Zandi said.

In addition, advances in technology tend to erase jobs, a factor that could make it harder for those who lost jobs in the financial sector to return to work.