Bernanke comments on “faster than expected” job growth

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — Stronger job growth has brought “good news” recently, but overall, it remains “out of sync” with the modest growth of the U.S. economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday.

“The improvement in the labor market over the past year — especially the decline in the unemployment rate — has been faster than might have been expected, given that the economy during that time appears to have grown at a relatively modest pace,” Bernanke told the National Association for Business Economics on Monday.

Government numbers show the U.S. economy has added more than 200,000 jobs each month since January, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 8.3% from 9% in just five months. Meanwhile, the U.S. economy has been growing relatively slowly, most recently at a mere 3% annual pace.

Bernanke called those figures a ‘puzzle.’ For the unemployment rate to fall that significantly, the economy should have been growing much more quickly.