If you just bought shares in Facebook or are considering doing so, you probably want to know what the company is doing to keep its employees happy.

At its new headquarters in Silicon Valley, CNBC reports that the social media giant goes beyond just free food and on-site drycleaning (that's so Google).

Facebook employees also can use a treadmill while taking conference calls, walk or bike the faux streets of the complex, get a beer on tap and write something on a literal Facebook wall.

Employees also apparently named the conference rooms, which gives you an insight into the geekdom at work here. Got a meeting? Put on your hoodie and head down to Jar Jar Drinks or Mai Tai Fighter.

Do the employee perks at your office compare to the ones at Facebook HQ? Tell us in the comments section below. 

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits were unchanged last week, according to government data on Thursday that will do little to ease concerns about a recent slowdown in jobs growth.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits held steady at a seasonally adjusted 370,000, the Labor Department said.

The prior week's figure was revised up to 370,000 from the previously reported 367,000.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 365,000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, fell 4,750 to 375,000.

The data comes on the heels of three straight months of slowing employment gains. Companies added 115,000 new jobs to their payrolls in April, the fewest in six months.

Thursday's report on claims covered the week for May's payrolls survey. The four-week average of new applications fell marginally between the April and May survey periods, suggesting not much change in labor market conditions.

Still, many economists think the April report gave an overly dim view of the economy, and pin the pull-back in job creation as payback for a mild winter that boosted gains in prior months.

The U.S. Federal Reserve appears disinclined to ramp up its support for the economy anytime soon unless the recovery stumbles. Minutes from the Fed's April meeting released on Wednesday supported that view.

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level claims data and no states had been estimated.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 18,000 to 3.27 million in the week ended May 5.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 22,150 to 2.67 million in the week ended April 28, the latest week for which data is available.

The number of people on extended benefits slipped 45,824 to 304,755. Most states that were eligible for the extended benefits program following the 2007-09 recession lost that eligibility this year as their labor markets improved or stabilized.

That could artificially push down the unemployment rate if people dropping off the benefits rolls give up the hunt for work.

A drop in the share of working-age Americans either with a job or looking for one to near a 30-year low pushed the jobless rate down to 8.1 percent last month from 8.2 percent in March.

A total of 6.27 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during the week ending April 28 under all programs, down 149,759 from the prior week.

The world's most famous investor, Warren Buffett, said Monday that his company Berkshire Hathaway is buying stocks even as they come under pressure from concerns about Europe and the U.S. economy.

"Well it really doesn't make any difference to us. We were buying stocks on Friday and we'll buy the same stocks today and we'll buy them a little cheaper," Buffett told CNBC in an interview. "I never complain about buying things cheaper."

Buffett, known as the "Oracle of Omaha" for his stock-picking acumen, gave the business cable station three hours of his time Monday in the wake of Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting Saturday. At the meeting, Buffett reassured investors about his health, saying that the prostate cancer he revealed to markets weeks ago would not effect his work. He also vowed that the company would be left in good hands after he steps down.

He also told CNBC that he did not think the jobs data that came out Friday were "terrible figures."

"They're just not good figures," he said.  

Marcelo Del Pozo / Reuters

In Spain, which sank back into recession in the first quarter, the unemployment rate hit 24.1 percent in March, a level not seen in eurozone data stretching back to 1986.

Europe's two-year-old strategy of austerity isn't working. And there is no Plan B.

The latest evidence that government spending cuts are driving the eurozone deeper into recession came Wednesday with a report on soaring unemployment in the zone's weaker economies.

Overall unemployment hit a 15-year high of 10.9 percent in March, driven by layoffs in Italy and Spain, a tenth of a point higher than in February, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office. That level of joblessness hasn't been seen since 1997, before the euro was introduced to world financial markets.

The average rate masks painfully high levels of unemployment in the hardest-hit countries. In Spain, which sank back into recession in the first quarter, the unemployment rate hit 24.1 percent in March, a level not seen in eurozone data stretching back to 1986. In Greece, more than one in five are out of work. In both countries, half of those under 25 are out of a job.

With deep government spending cuts only beginning, economists believe the jobless rate in Europe is headed higher.

"It now looks odds-on that the eurozone unemployment rate will move appreciably above 11.0 percent over the coming months with an ever-growing danger that it will reach 11.5 percent," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight. 

The recession has also begun to take a toll on Germany, the flywheel of Europe's economy and the driving force in the austerity measures imposed on debt-burdened countries with the weakest economies.

German unemployment ticked up last month for only the second time in 25 months, as other economic indicators showed the country's manufacturing sector contracting.

"This is a negative surprise," said Heinrich Bayer, an economist at Postbank. "Economic weakness seems to be taking a toll after all.... We are in a phase of stagnation."

European politicians and bankers have spent the past two years cobbling together a series of plans to force budget cuts on debt-burdened countries, including Greece, Italy and Spain, in return for a financial lifeline. Those efforts initially focused on Greece, which ultimately defaulted on a portion of its debt.

Now, other countries appear to be entering the downward spiral, as spending cuts force layoffs and undermine consumer and business confidence, driving local economies deeper into recession. As those local economies shrink, so do tax revenues - forcing deeper budget cuts and increasing the government's debt burden in relation to the size of its economy.

The leaders who backed those austerity measures now face voters at the polls.

"People - voters - are making it clear to politicians that they are tired of losing prosperity," said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics. "You can see that in the latest polls and surveys. It will be clear in national election results in Greece and France this weekend. Austerity is out: renewed economic growth is in."

Given the halting progress made by European leaders over the past two years, though, it remains far from clear whether they can agree on   how to shift course and promote growth.

The recession has weakened an already shaky banking system, which is operating on life support from Europe's central bank. Much of that funding, though, is being channeled back into purchases of government debt floated to fill in deficits. As demand from private investors dries up, banks have become the lenders of last resort to their governments..

That's made it harder for private companies to get the credit they need to expand operations and hire more workers.  

"We're not getting reforms anywhere in Europe," said Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank. "The access to credit is not there because the governments continue to take a bigger slice of the credit cake. That is the problem."

Elaine Thompson / AP

Job seekers line the hall at a job fair in SeaTac, Wash. The number of people requesting unemployment benefits last week dropped slightly, but the four-week moving average rose sharply.

Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the latest week, but a more accurate gauge of labor market trends -- the four-week moving average -- deteriorated, raising further worries about the recovery.

The Labor Department reported that seasonally adjusted jobless claims slipped by 1,000 to 388,000 in the week ended April 21. The four-week moving average, however, rose by 6,250 to 381,750.

Both claims' gauges remain below 400,000, at least for now, but have been edging closer to a number that economists believe is a crucial signpost for the health of the job market.

"This was a disappointing number and offers more evidence that the labor market continues to lose traction," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst with Western Union Business Solutions.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims falling to 375,000 last week.

The reading was the latest example of fizzling momentum in the labor market recovery. New claims fell sharply during early winter but the improvement has largely stalled in recent weeks.

Employers added 120,000 new jobs to their payrolls in March, the least since October, after averaging 246,000 jobs per month over the prior three months.

Many economists believe a mild winter boosted payrolls growth earlier in the year and view recent stagnation as payback for those gains.

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unusual in the state-level data in the claims report.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 3,000 to 3.315 million in the week ended April 14.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 45,930 to 2.73 million in the week ended April 7, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 6.68 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 87,160 from the prior week

Reuters contributed to this report. 

They’ve tried dumping $2 trillion in cash into the financial system, slashed overnight interest rates to zero and made an unprecedented promise to keep rates low for at least another two years.

But as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his central bank colleagues meet this week to ponder their next move, they’re still struggling to quicken the pace of the slowest economic recovery in generations.

Until recently, it appeared the Fed’s medicine was finally having the desired impact. Economic growth, as measured by gross domestic product, picked up to a healthy 3 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2011. Manufacturing, driven by a healthy pickup in new car sales, shifted into higher gear over the winter. The unemployment rate, stuck at 9.1 percent last summer, fell by a half percentage point.

But that growth may have been something of an illusion.

“It looks like a lot of the hiring that we were so enthusiastic about late last year was weather-related," said Yale economist Stephen Roach. “A little bit of a bloom is off the rose."

That view was echoed by the responses of 53 economists, fund managers, and investment strategists in the latest CNBC Fed Survey, released Tuesday. Several lackluster economic reports have moved market participants closer to the Fed’s view on the economy and the outlook for monetary policy. 

The respondents downgraded their outlook for year-over-year GDP growth to 2.39 percent from 2.46 percent. They took nearly a quarter point off the outlook for growth in 2013 and now see GDP rising just 2.55 percent. As a result, they downgraded already muted expectations for the stock market, predicting the S&P 500 stock index will be basically flat through June and rise just 2.9 percent by year-end.

“Bernanke has been vindicated on the Fed's forecast, with growth now giving back some of the seasonal strength we saw earlier in the year,’’ said Diane Swonk of Mesirow Financial.

The survey echoed the belief, shared by the Fed’s own forecast, that the economy will continue to turn in a subpar performance at least through the rest of the year. Asked their opinion of Fed policy, 51 percent of respondents say it’s “just right,” up from 38 percent in March; only 36 percent believe it’s “too accommodative,” down from 53 percent in March.

Some Fed officials, including Bernanke, have recently acknowledged that the economy isn't growing rapidly enough to make a significant dent in the unemployment rate.  

“If our economy were a Kentucky thoroughbred, I'd say we have moved from a walk to a trot, but we're far from a gallop," Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto told a meeting of bank regulators last week in Lexington, Ky.

There are signs that sleek horse may be slowing down into a walk.

After each recession since World War II, housing has helped lead the subsequent recovery. But five years into the biggest housing bust since the Great Depression, another hoped-for spring revival in home sales is in doubt.

Following signs earlier this year that the market may have hit bottom, the National Association of Realtors said last week that sales of previously owned homes fell 2.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.5 million. That's well below the pace of about 6 million typically seen in a healthy economy.

"We are most certainly not set to declare that the housing recovery is over, but a strong start to the spring selling season is simply not in the data," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG in New York.

Consumer spending and retail sales perked up in first quarter, but much of the increase was fueled by rising gasoline prices. Households have had to dip into savings to spend more.

The increased spending will be hard to sustain unless employers continue to create jobs faster than the workforce expands. Some economists, including Bernanke, suspect that the burst of new hires last winter was simply a reversal of some of the steep layoffs put in place after the economy’s sharp 2008 contraction. If so, the recent job market rebound may only be temporary.

“In a weak recovery, we're going to have a really hard time getting this unemployment rate down below 8 percent,” said Roach. “If you add in the underemployment, you've still got mid-teens in terms of broad-based measures of labor market distress in the United States, which is really without precedent for a so-called peacetime expansion."

Despite the Fed’s unprecedented measures, the current expansion badly lags other recoveries. More than four years after the recession of 2007 began, the U.S. economy has barely recovered the ground lost to the steepest downturn in 50 years. This far into past recoveries, by comparison, growth had advanced by anywhere between 10 and 20 percent.

As the U.S. economy slogs along, the global economy faces renewed pressures over which Fed policymakers have little or no control.

After a period of relative stability, Europe’s financial crisis appears ready to enter another turbulent chapter. In the past few weeks, fresh concerns about Spanish banks, political upheaval in Holland, and French president Nicolas Sarkozy's narrow loss in early round voting to his Socialist rival have cast doubts on a shaky set of European reforms pieced together to avert a wider crisis. With the exception of Germany, most of Europe has lapsed back into recession.

Growth in China, following a historic economic transformation, also appears to be slowing. Though still strong by Western standards, China’s slowdown represents a further slackening of demand for goods and services sold by U.S. and European companies.

The slowdown comes amid another historic shift in demand, as consumer spending in the developing world is becoming the key source for growth an increasingly global economy.

U.S. consumption as a percentage of world GDP peaked at about 22 percent in 2002, and has declined steadily since then, according to a recent report from economists at IHS Global Insight. Two years later, consumer spending in Western Europe peaked at almost 18 percent of the global economy. The economists predict that by 2015, consumers in those two regions will account for just 26.0 percent of world GDP, down from 38.5 percent in 2002.

Growth from consumers in emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China, meanwhile, is accelerating, rising to 8.1 percent of world GDP in 2010 from about 4.4 percent from 1995 through 2005. IHS Global Insight predicts the figure will hit 12.0 percent by 2015.

The shift has been accelerated by the Great Recession, the Eurozone debt debacle, and anemic growth in Europe and the United States, they said. But it’s also being propelled by strong demographic and economic forces.

“Emerging markets' consumers are now entering the world stage in greater numbers and are making a noticeable impression on multinational corporations, which view consumers in these nations as the ‘low-hanging fruit’ compared to the fatigued and frugal consumers in the developed countries," the economists said. 

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Job seekers wait to meet with recruiters during a job fair hosted by the State of New York in Brooklyn, NY.

New claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week, boosting concerns that the job market recovery was stalling.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that seasonally-adjusted initial jobless claims rose by 13,000 to 380,000 in the week ended April 7. It was their highest level since January.  

The four-week moving average, considered a more accurate gauge of job market trends, gained 4,250 to 368,500.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast initial claims falling to 355,000 last week.

Some economists brushed off the data, however, saying that seasonal factors were behind the increase and that they expect jobless claims to drift lower in coming weeks.

"The blip in claims is due to Easter. It came in well above expectations. We had an earlier Easter this year. I expect it to come down next week," John Canally, investment strategist at LPL Financial, told Reuters.

The claims data come in the wake of Friday's disappointing employment report for March, which showed the economy created 120,000 new jobs, the smallest amount since October.

Despite the rise in claims last week, both first-time applications for unemployment aid and the four-week average held below the 400,000 mark, implying job gains above March's tally.

A Labor Department official said there was nothing unexpected in the state-level data.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 98,000 to 3.25 million in the week ended March 31, possibly as many exhausted their benefits. That was th lowest since July 2008.

The unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2 percent in March, mostly as people gave up the search for work.

The number of Americans on emergency unemployment benefits fell 20,555 to 2.79 million in the week ended March 24, the latest week for which data is available.

A total of 6.95 million people were claiming unemployment benefits during that period under all programs, down 97,833 from the prior week.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Courtesy of the National Park Service

A park ranger speaks to visitors at St. Mary Falls in Glacier National Park, Mont. The National Park Service is one of the state's biggest employers.

The green economy often is cited as a key driver of the national economic recovery. At the very least, it is creating jobs. The total number of jobs related to green products and services in 2010 was 3.13 million, according to the first-ever green jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, to put things in perspective, these jobs accounted for only 2.4 percent of the country’s total employment that year.

In many states, jobs associated with the production of green goods and services represented a slightly larger share of employment. In 11 states, green jobs accounted for 3 percent or more of total jobs. Vermont had the highest proportion of clean economy jobs at 4.4 percent. Green jobs in these states are represented in many sectors, including manufacturing and construction.

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Although the states with the greatest numbers of green jobs relative to total employment vary in many ways, they share several characteristics. Many of these states have among the highest rates of public land -- land owned by federal and state governments. Colorado, Idaho and Alaska have among the highest rates of public land in the country, which allows for conservation and conservation-related jobs to flourish.

The states with the highest proportion of green jobs also tend to have below-average unemployment rates. As of January 2012, the national unemployment rate stood at 8.3 percent. Only one of the states with the most green jobs had a higher unemployment rate; two states had the same rate; and the remaining seven states had lower unemployment rates than the national average. Vermont had an unemployment rate of just 5 percent -- among the lowest in the country.

Of course, this is not to suggest that green jobs are improving the unemployment situation in these areas. Instead, these states may simply do a good job of promoting job growth in general -- including green jobs.

24/7 Wall St. examined the BLS report to identify the 10 states with the greatest number of green jobs as a percentage of total jobs in the state. Green jobs are those found “in businesses that produce goods and provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.” Data on green job growth by state from 2003 to 2010 were taken from the Brookings Institution’s “Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment.”

These are the states where green jobs thrive.

1. Vermont

•  Green jobs as percentage of total: 4.4 percent
•  Green jobs in private sector as percentage of total: 3.9 percent
•  Unemployment rate: 5.0 percent

Vermont is the country’s largest center for green job employment relative to its entire workforce by a substantial margin. Additionally, of the nearly 13,000 green jobs in the state, more than 9,000 are in the private sector. The state’s primary sectors of employment are organic food production and farming and, to a lesser extent, green building materials. It is not clear whether Vermont will maintain its position as the nation’s green leader. Job growth in the clean economy has increased at a slower rate than the national level between 2003 and 2010.

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2. Idaho

•  Green jobs as percentage of total: 3.7 percent
•  Green jobs in private sector as percentage of total: 2.8 percent
•  Unemployment rate: 8.1 percent

Idaho is another state with a large amount of land -- nearly 67 percent -- owned by either the state or federal government. The largest segment of the state’s clean economy is conservation, followed by the production of energy-saving building materials and hydropower. A few of the state’s major green companies are Boise Cascade, Power Engineers and Windsor Window.

3. Alaska

•  Green jobs as percentage of total: 3.6 percent
•  Green jobs in private sector as percentage of total: 2.8 percent
•  Unemployment rate: 7.2 percent

More than 89 percent of Alaska is owned by federal and state governments. Not only does the state’s clean economy account for a particularly large share of total employment, but its job growth rate from 2003 to 2010 has been significantly greater than the national average. The largest segment in the state’s green economy is by far conservation, as it employs more than five times the people as the second-largest segment. Major employers include the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

4. Maryland

•  Green jobs as percentage of total: 3.6 percent
•  Green jobs in private sector as percentage of total: 2.8 percent
•  Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent

Clean economy job growth in Maryland has largely mirrored that of the U.S. between 2003 and 2010. Waste management and treatment and conservation are the state’s largest green sectors. The fastest growing segment is solar energy, which has had a job growth rate of nearly 64 percent from 2003 to 2010. Some of the state’s major clean economy employers are environmental services companies Century Engineering, Kci Holdings and Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson.

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5. Montana

•  Green jobs as percentage of total: 3.5 percent
•  Green jobs in private sector as percentage of total: 2.4 percent
•  Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent

Montana has among the largest share of green jobs in the public sector. The state has a particularly large amount of public lands, such as state parks, which allow for a large amount of jobs in solar PV, or photovoltaic systems and hydropower. The largest clean economy sector, however, is conservation. Two of the state’s largest employers are the National Park Service and Forest Service.

Click here to read the rest of of the 10 states where green jobs thrive

North Dakota is currently experiencing an oil boom, with crude production in January jumping by 59 percent from one year prior.

As gas prices reach record highs across many parts of the country, Americans have been blaming oil companies. But as much as they are disliked, the oil and gas industry is also an indispensable part of many states and an asset to their local economies. 24/7 Wall St. has identified the 10 states with the most oil reserves, or the estimated amount of oil in the state, and examined the effects that the industry has on their economies.

In the states with the greatest amounts of oil reserves, those effects can be tremendous. The oil and natural gas industry supports nearly 25 percent of the economies of Texas and Wyoming, much more than the 6.8 percent it supports on a national scale. Every state on this list exceeds the national number by a significant amount.

The oil and gas industry also can have an outsized impact on employment in some states. On a national level, only 4.6 percent of all jobs are attributable to the operations of the oil and gas industry, directly or indirectly. In many states, the industry’s impact on employment is significantly higher. In five states, all of which are included on this list, the industry supports more than 10 percent of all jobs.

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While it is not necessarily the cause, the states with the most oil reserves generally have particularly strong economies. Six of the 10 states with the most reserves have among the lowest unemployment rates in the country; seven had the smallest increases in the unemployment rate from 2004 to 2010; and eight of the states had the largest increases in median household income from 2005 to 2010.

To identify the states with the most oil reserves, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. We also examined data from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Petroleum Institute.

These are the 10 states swimming in oil.

1. Texas

• Proved reserves of crude oil: 5,006 million barrels
• Oil refineries: 23 (the most)
• Unemployment rate, Jan. 2012: 7.3 percent (23rd lowest)
• Share of jobs supported by oil and gas: 14.3 percent (third highest)

Texas is the nation’s largest center for oil, with more than 5 billion barrels of proven reserves. It is also home to 23 refineries, which add to the size of the sector. The oil and natural gas industry supports 24.3 percent of the state’s total economy, which ties with Wyoming for the nation’s largest share. The industry also is responsible for 14.3 percent of total employment in the state, both directly and indirectly, which is the third-highest percentage. In numbers, this represents nearly two million jobs -- the highest in the country.

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2. Alaska

• Proved reserves of crude oil: 3,566 million barrels
• Oil refineries: 6 (tied for fourth most)
• Unemployment rate, Jan. 2012: 7.2 percent (22nd lowest)
• Share of jobs supported by oil and gas: 10.3 percent (fifth highest)

Alaska, the nation’s largest state by size, is home to more than three and a half billion barrels of crude oil. The oil and natural gas industry supports 16.9 percent of the state’s economy. It also accounts for 10.3 percent of jobs in the state -- the fifth-largest share in the country. The industry likely will expand in the near future as more oil is accessed.

3. California

• Proved reserves of crude oil: 2,835 million barrels
• Oil refineries: 19 (second most)
• Unemployment rate, Jan. 2012: 10.9 percent (tied for second highest)
• Share of jobs supported by oil and gas: 4.6 percent (16th highest)

California is the third-largest state by size, and sits on top of the third-largest amount of oil. As a result, the state is home to 19 refineries -- the second most in the country. This oil contributes a significant amount to the economy, supporting 7 percent of the state’s total gross domestic product in 2009. The industry also supports more than 900,000 jobs, or 4.6 percent of total state employment. While the share is rather small, the absolute total number is the second largest in the country.

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4. North Dakota

• Proved reserves of crude oil: 1,046 million barrels
• Oil refineries: 1 (tied for 24th most)
• Unemployment rate, Jan. 2012: 3.2 percent (the lowest)
• Share of jobs supported by oil and gas: 7.5 percent (sixth highest)

North Dakota has one of the strongest economies in the country. The state currently has an unemployment rate of just 3.2 percent -- the lowest among all states, and even lower than its 2004 rate of 3.5 percent. From 2005 to 2010, median household income in the state increased by 18.6 percent, the country’s highest rate. The state is currently experiencing an oil boom, with crude production in January jumping by 59 percent from one year prior. The oil and natural gas industry supports 11.8 percent of the state’s economy -- the sixth-largest share in the country.

5. New Mexico

• Proved reserves of crude oil: 700 million barrels
• Oil refineries: 3 (tied for 14th most)
• Unemployment rate, Jan. 2012: 7.0 percent (tied for 19th lowest)
• Share of jobs supported by oil and gas: 7.5 percent (seventh highest)

The oil and natural gas industry has a strong presence in New Mexico, which sits atop 700 million barrels of proved reserves of crude oil. The industry accounts for 10.6 percent of the state’s economy and is responsible for 7.5 percent of total jobs. From 2004 to 2010, the unemployment rate in the state increased from 5.8 percent to 7.9 percent. While this is a significant increase, it is among the lowest increases in the country for this period.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON -- Gary Feeman has been searching for a job for 16 months. He's not ready to give up just yet, but the 60-year-old worries he is running out of options.

Feeman is among the more than 5 million Americans who have been out of work for more than six months and who represent the heart of the crisis in the labor market.

Their plight also poses a warning that U.S. unemployment may not drop back to its pre-recession levels and could be stuck higher than many policymakers expect.

Feeman, from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, has sent out as many as 100 resumes. But the former maintenance director at a small amusement park in the area, has had only one interview in person. That was in January.

"I have tried everything under the sun," he said. "The frustrating thing to me is that when you apply for a job, employers do not respond either way."

One of the biggest challenges facing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues is to understand whether people like Feeman will eventually find work once the economy gathers enough speed.

Bernanke appears to think they will and he has suggested more stimulus by the Fed might be needed to kick-start demand, and job creation, into a higher gear.

But if he's wrong, the central bank risks pumping too much money into the economy in an effort to help people who have become unemployable. Rather than bringing down the jobless rate, the Fed could eventually fuel higher inflation.

"We're living through a juncture in U.S. policy history in which we're making major decisions about what type of society we're likely to be," said Steven Davis, an economist at the University of Chicago. "Those decisions will affect things for a generation."

Some 40 percent of the nation's unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. That's over twice the rate of long-term unemployment just before the 2007-2009 recession.

Bernanke mostly pins long-term joblessness on weak demand from American consumers and companies. In late March, he pointed to data showing that, compared to before the recession, the short-term unemployed also are taking much longer to find work.

This, he argued, justifies the Fed's policy of keeping interest rates low to help the economy. Persistent long-term unemployment is a risk because it might someday make people unemployable, he said.

"If progress in reducing unemployment is too slow, the long-term unemployed will see their skills and labor force attachment atrophy further, possibly converting a cyclical problem into a structural one," Bernanke told a conference of economists.

Long-term unemployment has other costs for the economy. A paper for the Brookings Institution, a Washington think-tank, finds that men who lose their job when the unemployment rate is above 8 percent forfeit twice as much in future earnings than if had they lost their job when the rate was below 6 percent.

Still, a number of private economists argue there are signs the structural unemployment problem is already larger than Bernanke would acknowledge.

Wall Street more gloomy than the Fed
Most Fed policymakers think the jobless rate could fall to somewhere between 5.2 and 6 percent before the economy heats up enough to fuel inflation. That's a higher "natural" unemployment rate than the roughly 5 percent rate estimated by most Fed policymakers three years ago.

Many private sector economists have shifted their estimate of the natural rate even higher. Credit Suisse pegs it at around 6.5 percent, and UBS at near 7 percent.

"If that is the case the Fed will run out of effectiveness much sooner than they realize," said Adolfo Laurenti, deputy chief economist at Mesirow Financial, in Chicago. He estimates the natural rate at between 6.5 and 7 percent.

Some economists see signs of an increase in the natural jobless rate in the widespread mismatch between job openings and the qualifications of those seeking work.

In U.S. manufacturing, for example, more than 600,000 jobs are unfilled because of a lack of skilled applicants, according to a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.

Many of the companies that are hiring are turning increasingly to younger workers with more up-to-date skills training, rather than taking a chance on people who have been out of work for a long time.

In Kentucky, a construction firm responded to the recession like most of its rivals: from 2008 to 2010, Gray Construction cut 51 of its total of 245 employees. As signs of growth returned to the economy, it started hiring again, with a focus on college graduates with specialized degrees.

"There has to be a very compelling reason to take somebody who was not in the industry, who has changed over to the industry, versus somebody who graduated with an engineering degree or construction management degree," said president and chief executive Stephen Gray.

Another possible source of a run-up in the natural jobless rate is that firms are relying more and more on automation technology. Workers untrained in using that technology could struggle to get jobs.

Some economists think long-term unemployment is also kept high because many workers can't move to find work because they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

"I don't think people have fully appreciated how deep the hole is," said Michael Greenstone, an economist at MIT university and former chief economist at the White House's Council of Economic Advisers. "The Great Recession is going to be living in our collective homes for many more years to come."

The Fed has bought $2.3 trillion in securities and kept interest rates near zero for over three years to aid the economy and fight the sharpest jump in unemployment since World War Two.

So far it has helped to bring the jobless rate down from 10 percent in 2009 to 8.2 percent in March, although many of the unemployed have become so demoralized that they have left the formal labor force.

If some economists are right to believe the natural unemployment rate is as high as 7 percent, then the Fed could hit a wall before long and need to tighten monetary policy.

Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota -- one of the policymakers at the Fed who suggests rates will have to rise sooner than later -- thinks last year's rise in inflation was a sign the Fed is approaching that wall.

"There's a point at which it gets to be very costly in terms of how much inflation you'd have to generate in order to get a reduction in unemployment," Kocherlakota said last month.

Such predictions are grim for construction workers like Mfthel, 36, who most days sits on a plastic crate at an intersection in Brooklyn, New York, waiting for casual work -- as he has done most days since the recession hammered his industry.

Mfthel, who declined to give his family name, and some of the other dozen men waiting on the street corner with tools and steel-toe boots said they had permanent jobs before the construction boom ended. Now they can expect $7 to $10 an hour for repairing buildings, moving furniture and paving driveways.

"Now they don't come or they don't pay enough," he said. "You can't do much with 20 bucks."

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The job market is looking up and small businesses are reaping the benefits.

The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index, which tracks hiring at companies with 300 or fewer employees, reported a 1.66 percent increase in March, the highest month-over-month increase since June 2010.

"I think it's an extremely positive sign, economically," said Philip Noftsinger, business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services. He said that while employment gains at larger firms could be attributed to increases in overseas business, small business job recovery is encouraging because it implies growing demand within the U.S. economy.

Noftsinger described a snowball effect in which increasing demand, hiring and consumer spending build on one another to propel the national economy forward. "What's really going to be important for a domestic recovery is those small businesses," he said. "What really will drive a positive movement in the economy is getting that small business employment back up and getting cash in the hands of consumers." 

One big X factor that has the potential to put the brakes on this positive trend is the price of gas, Noftsinger said. Small companies with tight operating budgets and little access to the credit markets could be materially affected if fuel prices, currently at around $4 a gallon, continue their ascent. 

While signs of a recovery in the labor market early last year turned out to be short-lived, Noftsinger said he's more optimistic that today's improving market has staying power. In the CBIZ index, a majority of companies are keeping staffing levels steady, while more than a quarter are adding jobs, often in sales positions.

This scramble to add salespeople is a strong signal that these companies expect the economy's upward trajectory to continue. "They're seeing some greening in the economy and they want to take advantage of that," Noftsinger said. Whereas the blip of improvement last year was driven primarily by confidence that turned out to be premature, the small businesses that are adding workers today are motivated by macro-economic conditions, not sentiment, he said. 

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