US may soon create up to half million jobs a month: Biden

Vice President Joe Biden on Friday offered a bullish prediction that the US economy could soon create 250,000 to half a million jobs per month, as the recovery picks up speed.

Biden's comments came as economic indicators, bumper earnings figures by some top firms, and a profitable run on Wall Street fuel increasing optimism about the US economy after the worst crisis in decades.

The vice president said he had got "into trouble" with White House candidates for past economic predictions, but made the remarks on a trip to the state of Pennsylvania to stump for Democratic candidates.

"All in all we're going to be creating somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs next month, I predict," Biden said.

"Even some in the White House said, 'Hey, don't get ahead of yourself.' Well I'm here to tell you some time in the next couple of months we're going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month."

"Because I'm telling you something, folks. We caught a lot of bad breaks on the way down. We're going to catch a few good breaks because of good planning on the way up."

President Barack Obama said earlier this month that the US economy was "beginning to turn the corner" after government data showed 162,000 jobs were created in March, the biggest increase in three years.

But the job growth was not sufficient to budge the unemployment rate from 9.7 percent.

In February, the economy lost 14,000 posts according to revised figures.