Official says jobless rate may rise despite a pickup

A top Labor Department statistician said unemployment, already at a postwar high, is expected to continue upward for two or three months even after economic recovery begins.

Janet Norwood, director of the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, said on ABC's ''Good Morning America'' that the unemployment rate tends to lag behind other statistics when the economy moves out of a recession.

The unemployment rate for March was 9 percent, or 9.9 million jobless, tying the post-World War II high first established in May 1975 during the 1974-75 recession.