US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, said on Monday that while there has been some improvement in US economic activity, there is still some way to go before the recovery can be viewed as self-sustaining. He said: "my best guess at this point is that we will continue to see modest economic growth next year--sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate, but at a pace slower than we would like." Also on Monday, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the US should raise significantly federal funding on jobs programmes for young people in order to limit the impact of the economic downturn on the current generation of school leavers, according to a new OECD report. Given the pressure on public finances, this may require some reallocation of federal funding towards youth programmes.