By Michael S. Derby
Oct 2 (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said on Friday that the September US employment report fits with the recent trend of hiring, noting she has time before she has to make a decision on what is next for monetary policy.
The September jobs report, which showed a seemingly weak 29,000 hiring gain and a move up in the unemployment rate to 4.2%, fits in with the recent performance of the sector, Hammack said in an interview with the PBS News Hour program.
“On average, what we’ve seen over the past 12 months is 41,000 new jobs being created each month. That’s largely in line with my estimate of what the break-even is” for the sector, which in turn suggests a trend of stability for the hiring sector, Hammack said.
Regarding how the Fed should react with monetary policy, Hammack said, “We’ll still have a lot of information before our meeting at the end of the month, and so there’s a lot of time to make a decision about what the right stance of policy is to make sure we’re delivering on both sides of our mandate.”
Hammack has been a steadfast and early supporter of raising rates to lower inflation pressures that she and her central bank colleagues consider too high. This week, a number of key Fed officials said the Fed has time to weigh the data before raising rates again.
The Fed last month hiked its interest rate target by a quarter percentage point, to between 3.75% and 4%, as officials penciled in expectations of another increase before year-end. The comments from officials this week indicated no rate action is likely at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting scheduled for Oct. 27-28.
(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
