UPDATE 1-US Treasury's Krueger: Long-term jobless a concern

(Adds comments from news conference)

WASHINGTON Aug 7 (Reuters) - Forecasts for U.S. economic growth to resume in the second half of this year are "plausible," but the Obama administration remains concerned about long-term unemployment, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Friday.

Alan Krueger, the Treasury's assistant secretary for economic policy, said despite a report showing moderating job losses, the administration was concerned about the record number of long-term unemployed Americans and would consider further actions if needed.

"The administration is constantly looking at how to get people back to work, how to lessen the pain of the recession," Krueger told a news briefing.

Krueger, a former Princeton University economics professor, said the jobs data overall, which showed 247,000 jobs were lost in July compared with 741,000 lost in January, was consistent with other evidence showing the economy was stabilizing.

He said the positive effects of the Obama administration's $787 billion in economic stimulus spending would increase in the second half.

"In terms of quarter by quarter, I would say that we're we're going to see more support from the recovery act coming to the economy in the third quarter than the second quarter," Krueger said, but declined to predict when the spending would peak. "The largest jobs impact will occur in 2010." (Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Neil Stempleman)