Solis: Unemployment rate ‘unacceptably high’

The 9.4 percent unemployment rate is “unacceptably high,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said Friday.

After the economy shed another 345,000 jobs in May, Solis wouldn’t say how high she expects the rate to go, only promising to accelerate the payout of stimulus funds.

“It’s an unacceptably high number for unemployment,” Solis said on MSNBC. “It continues to grow. And I think that, yes, we have to be vigilant, as the vice president knows and all of us, that we need to look at how we prepare for the future, and that is by really investing in new technologies and careers.”

She refused to speculate on how high the unemployment rate could go, after anchor Andrea Mitchell referenced some economists’ projection of a 10.2 percent peak in unemployment.

“That is not a projection that I’m prepared to make,” Solis said.

The Labor secretary said that a sped-up deployment of stimulus funds would help alleviate economic hardship this month.