WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Last week’s jobs report showed an unemployment rate of 4.1%, near the level considered full employment, and employers adding jobs faster than needed to account for population growth. This confirms that although the US labor market is slowing, it remains strong. Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic said Tuesday.
“Most people were fully employed before the pandemic,” Bostic said in a meeting with foreign consular officials based in Atlanta, referring to the unemployment rate, which has risen from a low of 4% last year. “We are actually moving to the situation we thought we would be in,” he said.
“The labor market is certainly slowing down, but it’s not slowing down,” he said, adding that monthly job creation is “pretty solid.”
U.S. employers added 254,000 salaried jobs in September.
Bostic said if the number of employees falls below 100,000 per month, he would wonder whether the Fed should consider cutting interest rates sooner than planned.
Instead, job growth in September was stronger than expected and the previous month’s numbers were revised upwards, leading traders to expect the Fed to cut its benchmark interest rate by just a quarter of a percentage point at its Nov. 6-7 meeting. Ta.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Fed president said inflation remains too high, with one key measure currently at 2.6%.
“We have to get back to the 2% goal,” Bostic said. “It’s too high… It’s still a long way off and I want people to understand that I’m still focused on the inflation target.”
(Reporting by Howard Schneider in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
