Fed meeting notes: Some data do not show sharp deterioration in labor market

In discussing the labour market, participants noted that job growth had slowed and unemployment had risen modestly, according to Fed meeting notes. The low level of employment growth estimated in recent months was seen as likely to reflect a decline in both labour supply and demand growth. Lower net migration or changes in labour participation were cited as factors weakening labour supply, while the impact of moderate or high economic growth on hiring decisions was seen as likely to depress labour demand. In this context, a range of other indicators were mentioned as useful for assessing labour market conditions, including the unemployment rate, the ratio of job openings to the number of unemployed, wage growth, the proportion of unemployed people finding work, the active turnover rate of those in employment and the rate of redundancies. There was broad agreement that the latest readings on these indicators did not show a sharp deterioration in labour market conditions. However, a few participants felt that recently released labour market data, including revisions to previous data and preliminary estimates of revised non-farm employment benchmarks, suggested that labour market weakness could last longer than previously reported.