Getting complicated: Powell says there is a bit of tension between labour market data as there are very low levels of job creation and yet people are spending. — Reuters
PHILADELPHIA: The US labour market remained mired in its low-hiring, low-firing doldrums through September, though the economy “may be on a somewhat firmer trajectory than expected,” Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell says, noting that policymakers will take a “meeting-by-meeting” approach to interest rate cuts as they balance job market weakness with above-target inflation.
Powell, in remarks to a National Association for Business Economics conference here, acknowledged the economic dilemma that has split US central bank officials almost evenly among those concerned most about still-high and potentially rising inflation, and those worried the labour market may be facing a fast slide downward.
