American Treasury Secretary Mr Paul O'Neill said today the US economy was on the road to recovery and he had not been surprised to see the monthly unemployment skip higher in August.
"I think the correction process is going on ... and that we're going to see a return to some much better rate of growth as we go through the year and into next year," Mr O'Neill told reporters, suggesting the country was headed back toward a rate of gross domestic product growth above three percent.
Mr O'Neill, in China for a meeting of Asia-Pacific finance ministers, said he was not surprised by the jump in the August unemployment rate to 4.9 percent - the highest in four years - but said that it was a lagging indicator and that other signs suggested growth ahead.
"None of us like the fact that more people are unemployed," Mr O'Neill said. But he said anecdotal evidence of stronger orders and a liquidation of inventories were creating a basis for improved US performance.
Mr O'Neill repeated that it was critical for Japan, the world's number two economy which is teetering on the brink of recession, to take action to implement promised reforms aimed at bolstering its sagging growth.