Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke says he'll stoke theeconomy until the job market recovers “substantially.” That promisemay force him to keep buying bonds until the final months of histerm ending in January 2014, according economists in a Bloombergsurvey.

Sixty-eight percent of 60 economists said the Fed chairman'sthird round of quantitative easing will last until late next yearor beyond. Just 51 percent of them said the strategy will helpboost employment, with a median estimate of 116,000 jobs over thecourse of next year.

“The recovery in the labor market is probably going to be moresluggish than the Fed recognizes” said Michael Hanson, senior U.S.economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York and a former Fedeconomist. He said policy makers have “painted themselves in a bitof a corner, waiting to see a significant improvement in the labormarket.”