U.S. Will Recover Lost Jobs In 2 Years -- If We're Lucky

The stubbornly high unemployment rate has many critics pondering whether the U.S. can once again be the great job-creation engine it once was.

Though the nation has added an average 157,000 jobs each month since the recovery began in early 2010, the economy has to add 165,000 jobs each month for two years just to return to December 2007's level of employment, according to analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan think-tank.