More job losses and falling GDP ahead: White House adviser

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1 of 3. A line of job seekers at the entrance to the National Capital Region Job Fair sponsored by Virginia Tech University at their branch campus in Falls Church, Virginia, March 10, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON | Tue Apr 14, 2009 10:06am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Christina Romer said on Tuesday that the United States will experience continued job losses and a falling gross domestic product for several more months.

"We know the economy's still sick. We know we've got several more months of job loss, for example. We know that the numbers on GDP are almost surely going to be very bad for this quarter and next," Romer, the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on NBC's "The Today Show."

The U.S. economy lost 663,000 jobs last month, driving the unemployment rate to a 25-year high of 8.5 percent. Economists polled by Reuters expect the unemployment rate to rise to 9.8 percent a year from now.

The economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2008, the steepest decline since the first quarter of 1982.

Economists polled by Reuters expect GDP to contract by 5.0 percent in the first quarter of 2009 and 2 percent in the second quarter before edging into positive growth toward the end of the year.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, Editing by Paul Simao)
Economy
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