Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the U.S. economy requires “continued policy support” to recover from a financial and economic crisis that has pushed unemployment to its highest level since 1983.

“Yesterday’s jobs numbers in the United States reinforced that this is still a very tough economic environment,” Geithner said in a statement after a meeting today of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations. The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October, as employers eliminated another 190,000 jobs, according to a Labor Department report.

Geithner said consumers and businesses are “cautious and tentative” in the aftermath of the crisis, the worst global decline since the Great Depression. “We need a period of sustained economic growth to bring the unemployment rate down.”

Now that the crisis is abating, “the next stage is about catalyzing private demand and business investment. This will require continued policy support,” he said.

The G-20 officials are meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland, to try to hammer out policies that will cement a recovery and prevent a repeat of the financial crisis.

“Today’s G-20 statement reflects a very broad consensus that growth remains the dominant policy imperative across our economies,” Geithner said. “We are bringing the same commitment to cooperation and coordination we demonstrated in the crisis to the agenda of reforms we outlined in London and Pittsburgh.”

‘Delicate Balance’

Geithner said it will require a “delicate balance” to remove emergency assistance to the economy and the banking system that was put in place to fight the crisis.

“Government policy has to provide a bridge to growth led by the private sector. We’re now in the middle span of that bridge,” Geithner said. “As growth strengthens and financial headwinds diminish, we will be able to begin the essential process of restoring balance to public finances and fully removing the broad backstop still in place for credit markets.”

The Treasury secretary said the U.S. doesn’t back a proposal to assess fees on financial transactions. “A day-by-day financial transaction tax is not something we’re prepared to support,” he said in an interview with Sky News.

Geithner said the U.S. does support the broader concept of putting the burden for bank rescues on the financial system. The G-20 released a statement today saying the ministers had agreed to consider “options on how the financial sector could contribute to paying for burdens associated with government interventions to repair the banking system.”

The Obama administration has proposed assessing banks after the fact, if the government bears any costs from unwinding a systemically important firm. The approach “helps reduce the risk of moral hazard,” Geithner said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 7, 2009 11:36 EST