Bernanke said that over the past two years, the Federal Reserve and other agencies have made a concerted effort to stabilize the U. S. financial system and the overall economy.

The economy began to grow in the third quater of 2009. But unemployment rate, currently at 9.5 percent, remains at a high level and is not expected to drop significantly soon.

U.S. President Barack Obama has taken job creation as a top priority on his policy agenda. He repeatedly said that small businesses are the major force to create new jobs.

Bernanke said that small businesses employ roughly one-half of all Americans and account for about 60 percent of gross job creation. Newer small businesses, those less than two years old, are especially important: Over the past 20 years, these start-up enterprises accounted for roughly one-quarter of gross job creation even though they employed less than 10 percent of the workforce.

He said that the Fed is taking effort to tackle this issue with other economic policy making agencies, but "more must be done."

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