Even if the recession, which began in December 2007, ends this year, the unemployment rate will keep climbing past the current quarter-century high of 8.1 percent, Bernanke said. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_bi_ge/bernanke60_minutes" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_bi_ge/bernanke60_minutes</a>