"Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time," Bernanke said after giving a speech at a Brookings Institution conference.
In declaring the recession over, Bernanke went slightly beyond the Fed's most recent assessment that the economy was leveling off and that indications on growth had improved.
“The general view of most forecasters is that that pace of growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect given the depth of the recession because of ongoing headwinds," Bernanke said.
Economists generally estimate U.S. trend potential growth to be in a range around 2.5 percent.
Bernanke acknowledged that a recovery could turn out to be either stronger or weaker than forecasters expect, but warned of ongoing pain in the labor market under the expected growth rate.
"Of course there are risks on both sides of that forecast — we could have a stronger recovery, we could have a weaker recovery," he said.
"But if we do in fact see moderate growth, but not growth much more than the underlying potential growth rate, then unfortunately, unemployment will be slow to come down."
U.S. unemployment has soared to 9.7 percent since the recession began in December 2007, and is forecast to hit 10 percent in the months ahead.
Bernanke's comment implicitly acknowledges the possibility of a stronger-than-expected "V-shaped" U.S. recovery. The latest Blue Chip survey of economists predicts that growth will expand by a brisk 3 percent annual rate in the third quarter.
Fed policymakers meet next week and are expected to keep rates pegged between zero and 0.25 percent when they conclude their two-day meeting on Wednesday, while maintaining purchases of longer dated U.S. government and mortgage-related debt.