Bernanke gave a talk to the National Association for Business Economists.

In addition to the heavy toll on workers and families, he noted that “Because of its negative effects on workers’ skills and attachment to the labor force, long-term unemployment may ultimately reduce the productive capacity of our economy.”
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Mr. Bernanke said Monday that structural unemployment may have increased in recent years, but that high unemployment was mostly cyclical.

“The continued weakness in aggregate demand is likely the predominant factor,” he said. “Consequently, the Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policies, by providing support for demand and for the recovery, should help, over time, to reduce long-term unemployment as well.”

Mr. Bernanke outlined several reasons for this conclusion. He said that people who lost work recently had not increased their advantage in finding new jobs over the long-term unemployed, as might be expected if the latter group were languishing because they lacked relevant skills. And he noted that hiring generally remained weak across the economy, again suggesting that the lack of new hiring had broad causes rather than industry-specific roots.