Fed Chair Says US has Strongest Job Market in a Decade

December 19, 2016 Share Print 0

The U.S. has the strongest jobs market in nearly a decade thanks in part to accelerating wage growth and a low layoff rate, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday.

In last week’s decision to raise rates, Fed officials indicated that full employment is getting closer, with the jobless rate currently at 4.6 percent. Job creation has been steady and job openings are up, she said, according to prepared remarks.

“The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting some further strengthening in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent inflation,” the statement said.

However, some of the challenges Yellen mentioned include “slow economic growth” and “disappointing productivity.”

In the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement last week, it said “economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace since mid-year,” which was an upgrade from November’s assessment that growth had “picked up from the modest pace seen in the first half of this year.”

via CNBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.