U.S., Canada need jobless aid: OECD

Countries like the U.S. and Canada may need to further extend jobless benefits to put a lid on long-term unemployment as the world economy emerges from the financial crisis, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. Long-term job seekers in the U.S., now benefiting from a December extension in federal aid, make up an "unusually high share" of the 8.8 percent U.S. jobless rate, the OECD said. "The case can be made for maintaining the extension until labor-market prospects have sufficiently improved to prevent individuals from falling into persistent poverty," the OECD said in a report issued in Brussels today. With the crisis driving up long-term unemployment in at least 10 countries including the U.S., Britain and Spain, the OECD noted that most central banks are keeping interest rates at "strongly expansionary" levels in order to spur job creation as debt-wracked governments rein in spending. - Bloomberg