U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday expressed that national unemployment is a serious problem that has to be dealt with immediately.

He said that many people have been jobless for several years and badly need the help of government to recover from their miserable condition.

"They have lost their skills need to be retrained for new jobs," Bernanke told the Associated Press.

He also mentioned that the housing industry requires federal assistance.

In a speech in Cleveland, a copy of which was given to media, Bernanke stressed that well-developed economies such as the U.S. should learn from the experiences of rising market economies.

The Federal Reserve head pointed out that these economies had strong points like "fiscal discipline, taking on the needed public investments, promoting education and technology, implementing regulations that advance growth and innovation, and sustaining financial stability."

Likewise, he revealed that "a successful agenda for development should consider activities such as adaptation of modern technologies and employment of economies of scale since these are crucial to economic growth and dependent on a multitude of institutional conditions like a knowledgeable workforce, to be totally effective," according to a report from the Associated Press.

At present, U.S. politicians are locked in a struggle over the need to reduce spending as against generating investments in education, job creation and infrastructure.

Bernanke took a swipe at some policymakers who have not welcomed essential economic principles that could lead to progress and warned against cutting down on shortfalls too soon for the sake of reducing budget deficits because these may jeopardize the precarious economic situation.

He said that up-and-coming nations have been benefitted by almost 30 years of strong economic growth because of solid support from their respective governments.

The U.S. government is currently urging G20 members and that includes China, India and Brazil to bolster economic demand instead of depending on exports to wealthy nations.