U.S. must be open to second economic stimulus: Hoyer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. leaders should be open to the possibility of a second stimulus package to further boost the economy, which is still hemorrhaging jobs, House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

Hoyer told reporters it was too early to say whether the $787 billion, two-year stimulus package approved in February was having the desired impact on the economy, which has been in a recession since December 2007.

"It's certainly too early right now ... to say it's not working," Hoyer said of the initial stimulus package. "In fact we believe it is working. We believe there are a lot of people who otherwise would have been laid off, lost their jobs, who haven't done that."

The rate of job losses was slowing, but "it's not where it ought to be," he added. Some areas of the economy were still in trouble, he said, "housing being the leading sector."

"I think we need to be open to whether we need additional action," he said. Last month employers shed some 467,000 jobs, which sent the unemployment rate up to 9.5 percent, the highest in nearly 26 years.

However, the jobs outlook is expected to get worse in coming months, with President Barack Obama and many economists predicting it will surge past 10 percent.

So suggestions of a second stimulus have been bubbling up amid criticism by Republicans who have argued that the first package was misdirected and wasted money on programs that will not boost the economy or create jobs.

Debt prices also fell on Tuesday in part because of concerns about further federal borrowing and appetite by investors. The deficit is expected to hit an eye-popping $1.8 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Obama, who led the charge for the $787 billion package when he took office in the midst of the economic crisis, has said the first stimulus would create or save up to 4 million jobs.

Laura D'Andrea Tyson, an economic adviser Obama, said on Tuesday in Singapore that the United States should be planning for a possible second round of fiscal stimulus and focused on infrastructure investment.

The first stimulus package included tax cuts to spur auto and home sales, aid to help states with their budget deficits and money for some infrastructure projects and social programs like the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor.

"The stimulus is performing close to expectations, but not in timing," Tyson said, referring to the slow pace at which the first round of stimulus had been spent on the economy.

Tyson, who is a dean of the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley, and was also a White House economic adviser to former President Bill Clinton, said an additional factor affecting the stimulus was that the economy was in a far worse shape than the administration had estimated.

(Additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)