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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said
low interest rate policies were needed to confront deep, continuing problems in the labor market and cautioned that job market conditions were "far from normal," with uncertainty lingering about whether the relatively rapid improvement over the past year is sustainable.

"Further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more-rapid expansion of production and demand from consumers and businesses, a process that can be supported by continued accommodative policies," Mr. Bernanke said at a conference of the National Association for Business Economics.

Monday's speech could counter some investors' expectations that the Fed was likely to start raising short-term interest rates before the late 2014 time period the central bank has indicated.

The economy has added an average 245,000 jobs per month over the past three months, though the pace slowed a bit in February to 227,000 and the jobless rate remained high at 8.3%. Still, the number of people applying for initial unemployment benefits slipped to a four-year low last week, raising expectations that hiring in March would once again top the 200,000 mark.

While noting these improvements, Mr. Bernanke stressed that the labor market is far from healed, with the number of people working and hours worked remaining significantly below levels before the crisis.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577305253971815684.html?mod=googlenews_wsj