John Paul Whitefoot writes: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has confirmed what most already knew. The recovery in the U.S. jobs market is far from complete. Yellen noted that the unemployment rate has improved since the Federal Reserve initiated its last round of quantitative easing in late 2012, falling from 8.1% to 6.6%. Curiously, in 2013, the U.S. economy grew just two percent. For the head of the Federal Reserve, this translates into more money being dumped into the bond market ($65.0 billion per month) and a continuation of artificially low interest rates.

With interest rates near zero, short-term bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), and other traditional income-generating investment sources are paying investors next to nothing. Case in point: 10-year government bonds currently provide an annual yield of 2.6% and 30-year Treasuries yield 3.6%. While individual high-dividend-yielding stocks do not provide the same kind of exposure or diversification as “high-dividend-yielding” ETFs do, they will provide a better annual dividend yield. Mercury General Corporation (NYSE/MCY) is a high-dividend-yielding stock that has seen its share price slip more than 13% since the beginning of the year. PPL Corporation (NYSE/PPL) is another high-dividend-yielding stock that has provided a dividend for 12 consecutive years and offers an annual yield of 4.9%.

Source: Market Oracle

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