Fed Chairman Sees Possibility Of 'Jobless' Recovery: Shelby

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sees the possibility of continued high unemployment even after the recession eases, a key Republican lawmaker who met with the Fed chief told CNBC.

Ben Bernanke

"It was a rather sobering meeting," Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, said in a live interview. "I said...'Could this be a jobless recovery?'...and he said it could be," Shelby said.

Bernanke has predicted the recession will end this year, with many economists forecasting that the economy will start to grow again as soon as the current July-September quarter.

But Bernanke's comment that unemployment could remain high for some time appeared to be more pessimistic than any of his recent public statements.

"I didn't come out of the meeting feeling a lot of euphoria," Shelby said. See video for entire interview.

Earlier Monday, Christina Romer, chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, told CNBC that it was difficult to quantify job creation despite President Obama's prediction that his economic stimulus plan could save or create 3.5 million jobs.

"It's very hard to say exactly—you don't know what the baseline is," Romer said in a live interview. "Because you don't know what the economy would have done without it. (the stimulus plan)." Click here to watch interview.

The president's council released a report on Monday saying that jobs in the healthcare and environmental sectors are growing at a faster rate than those of the U.S. economy as a whole.

The report, which looks at how the U.S. labor market is expected to develop in the next few years, says a rebound in employment in construction and some manufacturing sectors is expected as stimulus spending approved early this year invests in projects around the country.

The report is based on an analysis of recent labor market data, a White House official said.

The report identifies likely changes in the U.S. labor market as economic drivers shift from sectors like financial services to the growing sectors that are transforming the economy, the official said.

—Reuters contributed to this report.

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