The US economy is a long way from a strong job market and the experience of past recessions shows it could take years to recover, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

In addition to mass vaccinations to halt the Covid-19 health crisis, it will take a full suite of government policies to repair the damage done by the pandemic to the US labor market, he said in a speech.

"Despite the surprising speed of recovery early on, we are still very far from a strong labor market whose benefits are broadly shared," Powell said, noting the true jobless rate is about 10 percent.

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