Fed’s Evans Says US Jobless Rate May Rise

“I’m a little concerned that the most recent improvement is going to be transitory and it might move up above 8.5 percent,” Evans said in response to audience questions after a speech today in Carmel, Indiana.

Evans said he forecasts that “at the end of the year, we’re not going to be very different from 8.5 percent unemployment.”

Fed policy makers will discuss at their Jan. 24-25 meeting in Washington whether more steps are needed to bolster an expanding U.S. economy. Employers last year added 1.64 million workers, the best year for the American worker since 2006. Even with the gain, little headway has been made in recovering the 8.75 million jobs lost as a result of the recession that ended in June 2009.

The Labor Department said last week that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.5 percent, down from 8.7 percent in November, 8.9 percent in October and 9.4 percent in December 2010.