A jobless rate at 9.1 percentis "consistent with recession" while inflation is far from a worry, Evans said while defending both the central bank's previous actionsto stimulate conditions and his view that even more action along the lines of quantitative easing will be needed.

In his view, QE needs to stay in place until unemployment plunges to 7 percent or if inflation gets past 3 percent. Core inflation, which strips out food and transportation, is about 1.8 percent, though the number is 3.6 percent including the more volatile measures.

Evans is a voting member on the fed Open Market Committee and traditionally has been among its more dovish members when it comes to interest rates and inflation.

"Strong accommodation needs to be in place for a substantial period of time," he said. "If we could sort of make everybody understand that this is going to be in place for a longer period of time, we could knock out some of that restraint that comes about when people talk about premature tightening."

Since the financial crisis hit in 2008, the Fed has expanded its balance sheet past the $2.5 trillion mark and kept its funds rate near zero in an effort to stimulate the economy.

However, the housing market is worse than Great Depression levels, recent manufacturing readings have been around contraction levels and weekly jobless claims have stayed above 400,000.

Nevertheless, Evans said things would be worse without Fed intervention even while acknowleding that the economy has not achieved the "escape velocity" it need to establish a recovery.