WASHINGTON – The jobs crisis is putting more Americans at risk of losing their homes.

One in 10 households is facing foreclosure, and more than 2 million homes have been repossessed since the recession began.

Few expect the outlook to improve until companies start to hire steadily again and layoffs ease.

And while there was some good news Thursday – a modest decrease in the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time in a month, with Indiana seeing the second-best improvement – the figure is still too high to bring down the unemployment rate.

So the housing crisis goes on.

“Ultimately, the housing story, whether it is delinquencies, homes sales or housing starts, is an employment story,” said Jay Brinkmann, the top economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

It’s just one of the problems confronting Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke as he speaks today at a closely watched conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Fed has mostly exhausted its ammo to give the economy a jolt.

Just less than 10 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment as of June 30, according to a quarterly report on delinquencies released by Brinkman’s trade group. That’s more than double the level before the recession.

The percentage of mortgage borrowers receiving foreclosure notices did fall slightly from the previous quarter, the first drop in four years. And the percentage of loans receiving their first notice of foreclosure also dipped.

But many experts say the situation is getting worse. July was the worst month on record for new home sales and the worst in 15 years for sales of previously occupied homes.

More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

And 6 million more will be lost to foreclosure over the next three years, by some estimates.