LONDON (MNI) - Things appear to have stabilized but it is going to be a long haul recovery and employment levels may fall further, Bank of England Chief Economist Spencer Dale said in an interview published at the weekend by the Exeter based Express & Echo newspaper.

Dale said that while things have improved, there was a long way to go before things get back to the old normal.

"Things look like they've stabilized, and we have turned a corner, but it looks like we are in for a long haul," Dale was reported as saying.

"There's still a long way to go before things are bouncing back to where they were, and it's going to take us a while to get there, but things feel quite a bit better than they did six or nine months ago," he said.

"The risk that things could get really bad has gone away, but now it's a question of how quickly we may see a return to normality," Dale was reported as saying.

"Going forward we may well see employment levels continue to remain low, or fall further, before we start to see a pick up, so I do think the pick up in employment may well be relatively slow and gradual," he said.